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LABOR    HERALD     LIBRARY 

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OP    THE 

AMERICAN 

BOR 

MOVEriEMT 


BY     njijm   Z.T=b5r4s©n 


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PUBLISHED     BY 

THE     TRADE      UNION      EDUCATIONAL     LEAGUE 
II©     IN         l-ASALLE   ST  Chicago  III. 

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Militants,  Notice! 

Organize!  Join  the  Trade  Union  Edncational 
League.  This  is  a  system  of  informal  committees 
throughout  the  entire  union  movement,  organized  to 
infuse  the  mass  with  revolutionary  understanding  and 
spirit.  It  is  working  for  the  closer  affiliation  and  solidi- 
fication of  our  existing  craft  unions  until  they  have 
been  developed  into  industrial  unions.  Believing  that 
all  workers  should  stand  together  regardless  of  their 
social  or  other  opinions,  it  is  opposed  to  the  common 
policy  of  radical  and  progressive-minded  workers  quit- 
ting the  trade  unions  and  starting  rival  organizations 
based  upon  ideal  principles.  That  policy  is  one  of  the 
chief  reasons  why  the  American  labor  movement  is  not 
further  advanced.  Its  principal  effects  are  to  destroy 
all  radical  organization  in  the  old  unions  and  to  leave 
the  reactionaries  in  undisputed  control. 

The  Trade  Union  Educational  League  is  in  no 
sense  a  dual  union,  nor  is  it  affiliated  with  any  such 
organization.  It  is  purely  an  educational  body  of 
militants  within  existing  mass  unions,  who  are  seeking 
through  the  application  of  modern  methods  to  bring 
the  policies  and  structure  of  the  labor  movement  into 
harmony  with  present  day  economic  conditions.  It 
bespeaks  the  active  cooperation  of  all  militant  union 
workers.    For  further  details  apply  to  the 

Trade  Union  Educational 
League 

118  North  La  Salle  Street,  Chicago 


Labor  Herald  Library 
No.  4. 


The  Bankruptcy  of  the  American 
Labor  Movement 

By  Wm.  Z.  Foster 


CHAPTER  I. 
A  State  of  Bankruptcy 

A  commonly  accepted  principle  of  practical  economics  is  that 
in  a  given  country  the  extent  and  ripeness  of  the  labor  movement 
depends  directly  upon  and  may  be  measured  by  the  degree  of  in- 
dustrial development  attained  in  that  country.  In  non-industrial 
China,  for  instance,  no  one  looks  for  important  labor  organizations, 
but  all  the  world  takes  as  a  logical  thing  the  powerful  labor  move- 
ments in  highly  industrialized  Europe.  Karl  Marx  stresses  this  prin- 
ciple, saying:  "—combinations  (of  labor)  have  not  ceased  to  grow 
with  the  development  and  growth  of  modern  industry.  It  is  at  such 
a  point  now  that  the  degree  of  development  of  combination  in  a 
country  clearly  marks  the  degree  which  that  country  occupies  in  the 
hierarchy  of  the  world  market."  * 

This  economic  principle  holds  true  quite  generally.  With  almost 
unfailing  regularity  those  nations  with  well  developed  industrial  sys- 
tems also  have  well  developed  labor  movements,  and  those  that  are 
backward  industrially  are  also  backward  in  working  class  organiza- 
tion. The  one  glaring  exception  to  the  rule  is  the  United  States. 
Here  we  have  the  extraordinary  situation  of  the  world's  most  highly 
developed  industrial  system  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  most  backward 
labor  movement  of  any  important  country  on  the  other.  The  United 
States  stands  first  in  the  world  market,  but,  in  apparent  contradic- 
tion to  Marx,  this  could  never  be  deduced  by  a  study  of  its  primitive 
working  class  organization.     The  whole  situation  is  a  great  paradox. 

Before  indicating  the  cause  of  this  paradox  and  pointing  the  way 

'Poverty   of  Philosophy,    P.    156. 


2  BANKRUPTCY  OF  THE  LABOR  MOVEMENT 

out  of  it,  it  will  be  well  for  us  to  demonstrate  the  extreme  undevelop- 
ment  of  the  American  labor  movement  by  considering  a  few  of  its 
principal  phases: 

Intellectual  Blindness 

A  prime  requisite  for  carrying  on  Labor's  fight  successfully 
against  the  exploiters  is  a  clear  understanding  of  just  what  that  fight 
is  about.  Otherwise  practical  programs  and  effective  tactics  are  out 
of  the  question.  American  Labor,  aside  from  the  weak  revolutionary 
groups,  is  particularly  lacking  in  this  vital  respect.  It  has  not  yet 
opened  its  eyes  to  the  true  meaning  of  the  labor  struggle,  nor  is  it 
trying  to  do  so.     It  is  intellectually  blind. 

In  all  other  important  countries,  particularly  in  Europe,  Organized 
Labor  has  awakened  to  the  revolutionary  character  of  the  working 
class  movement.  It  has  come  to  acquire  a  revolutionary  point  of 
view  regarding  private  property,  the  State,  the  wage  system,  the 
class  struggle,  and  capitalist  society  generally.  It  knows  that  the 
wrestlings  between  the  workers  and  the  capitalists  are  but  so  many 
incidents  of  a  revolutionary  struggle  in  which  either  side  seizes  from 
the  other  all  that  it  has  the  power  and  intelligence  to  take.  With 
eyes  that  have  been  opened,  Labor  abroad  is  conscious  of  its  revolu- 
tionary mission,  and  it  is  striving  constantly,  despite  a  thousand  ti- 
midities and  mistakes,  towards  the  only  way  to  solve  the  labor  prob- 
lem, towards  the  abolition  of  the  capitalist  system  and  the  establish- 
ment of  a  proletarian  regime. 

But  American  Labor  is  still  asleep,  drugged  into  insensibility  by 
bourgeois  propaganda.  It  is  the  only  important  labor  movement  in 
the  world  not  yet  aware  of  the  revolutionary  character  of  the  fight 
that  it  is  carrying  on;  it  is  the  only  one  which  has  not  declared  for 
some  sort  of  a  socialist  society  as  its  ultimate  goal.  And  the  worst 
of  it  is  that  it  is  making  no  effort  toward  such  an  awakening. 
European  Labor  studies  present  day  society  deeply  and  draws  funda- 
mentally revolutionary  conclusions  therefrom,  but  American  Labor 
takes  capitalist  economics  and  morals  for  granted.  An  earnest  study 
of  social  institutions  by  a  typical  American  labor  leader  would  be  a 
world  curiosity. 

In  this  philosophical  backwardness,  in  this  positive  refusal  to 
see  capitalism  in  its  true  light,  originate  most  of  the  evils  from  which 
our  labor  movement  is  now  suffering.  American  Labor  has  no  social 
vision,  no  real  understanding  of  what  it  is  trying  to  accomplish.     A 


BANKRUPTCY  OF    I  111'.   LABOR  MOVEMENT  3 

few  years  ago  its  leaders  used  to  tell  us  they  were  striving  for  "a 
fair  day's  pay  for  a  fair  day's  work,"  but  since  that  nonsensical  con- 
ception has  been  exploded  they  dodge  the  issue  altogether.  Conse- 
quently the  movement  just  drifts  along  aimlessly  and  planlessly, 
fighting  for  petty  immediate  demands,  most  of  which  are  founded 
upon  false  bourgeois  premises,  and  which  lead  the  workers  into  a 
swamp  of  defeat.  American  Labor,  because  of  its  ignorance  of  its 
true  goal,  is  short-sighted  and  crassly  materialistic.  It  knows  nothing 
of  that  wonderful  spirit  of  sacrifice  and  idealism  which  is  always 
born  of  the  workers'  hope  for  a  new  day.  Mr.  Gompers  and  the  others 
who  justify  this  condition  of  ignorance  and  fight  relentlessly  against 
every  attempt  to  enlighten  the  workers  about  capitalist  society  and 
to  get  them  to  formulate  real  working  class  intellectual  conceptions, 
are  as  generals  of  an  army  who  have  neither  a  plan  of  strategy  nor 
a  knowledge  of  the  enemy  they  have  to  contend  with.  It  is  our 
calamity  and  discredit  that  one  has  to  come  to  America  to  find  the 
sad  spectacle  of  a  great  labor  movement  which  has  not  yet  freed  it- 
self intellectually  from  the  bonds  of  capitalism,  and  which  is  still  per- 
sisting in  the  foolish  and  hopeless  task  of  patching  up  the  wage 
system. 

Our  Political  In  fancy 

No  less  primitive  is  American  Labor's  conception  of  political 
action.  In  this  respect  also  we  stand  in  a  class  by  ourselves,  at  the 
foot  of  the  list.  In  all  important  foreign  countries  the  labor  move- 
ments have  come  to  understand  that  they  must  carry  on  the  class 
war  in  the  political  as  well  as  the  industrial  field.  With  them  it  is 
no  longer  a  debatable  question  as  to  whether  or  not  the  workers 
should  organize  politically  on  class  lines.  Such  organization  is  so 
well  understood  as  to  be  taken  for  granted  as  a  self-evident  neces- 
sity. The  only  matter  at  issue  is  whether  their  political  parties 
should  be  Labor,  Socialist,  Syndicalist*,  or  Communist  in  make-up. 
Only  in  the  United  States  is  the  labor  movement  so  altogether  raw 
and  undeveloped  that  it  still  has  this  fundamental  lesson  to  learn. 
This  is  the  one  modern  country  where  the  mass  of  organized  workers 
have  no  political  party  of  their  own,  and  where  they  continue  to  tail 
along  in  the  train  of  the  capitalist  parties,  pursuing  the  program  of 


•Although  differing  radically   from   the   other   groups  in   their  political  concq 
the    Syndicalists    nevertheless    carry    on    working    class    political    action.      They    use    the 
unions   as   their   party,    and    instead    of    electing    re;-  into    the    Ciovernments, 

they    bring  direct    industrial    pressure   to   beat   on    them. 


4  BANKRUPTCY  OF  THE  LABOR  MOVEMENT 

"rewarding  their  friends  and  punishing  their  enemies."  Everywhere 
else  the  labor  movements  have  outgrown  this  obsolete  policy  from  15 
to  50  years  ago. 

By  preserving  in  this  primitive  and  outworn  political  method 
American  Labor  has  been  reduced  to  practically  a  political  zero. 
Our  labor  movement  has  little  or  no  real  influence  in  the  affairs  of 
the  State.  One  aspect  of  its  powerlessness  is  its  almost  complete 
lack  of  representation  in  the  various  legislative  bodies.  Outside  of 
a  few  nondescript  "card  men"  here  and  there  who  are  often  even 
more  corrupt  and  treacherous  than  the  capitalist  politicians  them- 
selves, Labor  has  no  spokesmen  whatever  in  the  local,  state,  and 
national  legislative  assemblies.  The  whole  law  making  and  law  en- 
forcing mechanism  is  in  the  hands  of  the  enemy,  who  do  as  they 
please  with  it. 

Compare  this  situation  with  that  prevailing  in  Europe,  for  in- 
stance, where  the  workers  have  understood  to  build  themselves  class 
political  organizations.  There  Organized  Labor  is  a  great  political 
power,  and  one  which  must  be  reckoned  with  on  all  vital  issues.  In 
Germany  the  workers'  parties  control  42%  of  the  members  of  the 
Reichstag,  in  Austria  387c,  Checho-Slovakia  36%,  Belgium  35%,  Den- 
mark 34%,  Italy  and  Bulgaria  25%,  Norway,  Holland  and  Switzerland 
22%,  in  their  respective  national  parliaments.  In  Great  Britain  many 
experts  look  for  the  Labor  Party  to  be  the  dominant  one  after  the 
next  general  elections.  Politically  the  workers  of  Europe  are  a  real 
power. 

Another  aspect  of  American  Labor's  political  weakness  is  the 
reactionary  course  of  labor  legislation  in  the  United  States.  In  1909, 
after  his  visit  to  Europe,  Mr.  Gompers  had  this  to  say: 

"We  are,  in  the  United  States,  not  less  than  two  decades  be- 
hind many  European  countries  in  the  protection  of  life,  health, 
and  limb  of  the  workers  .  .  .  We  are  behind  England  10  years. 
We  are  behind  Germany  20  years."  * 

In  the  13  years  that  have  elapsed  since  this  comparison  was 
made  the  situation  has  become  much  more  unfavorable  for  the  United 
States,  because  during  that  period,  and  especially  since  the  war, 
nearly  all  the  European  countries  have  made  great  strides  forward 
in  labor  legislation  while  this  country  has  gone  steadily  backward. 
All  over  Europe  the  workers  have  been  able  to  wring  ©ne  political 
concession  after  another  from  the  capitalists,  whereas  here  the  cap- 


'Charges   Against   the   National  Association   of  Manufacturers,    etc."   P.    2532. 


BANKRUPTCY  OF  THE  LABOR  MOVIMK.VI 

italists  have  stripped  the  workers  of  many  of  their  most  fundamental 
rights.  Free  speech  and  free  press  have  been  largely  abolished  by 
the  multitude  of  anti-syndicalist  laws,  and  hundreds  of  labor  men, 
arrested  merely  for  expressing  their  opinions,  have  been  given  prison 
sentences  so  severe  as  to  shock  the  civilized  world.  The  right  of 
assembly  has  degenerated  into  little  more  than  a  privilege,  dependent 
upon  the  whims  of  the  American  Legion,  the  Ku  Klux  Klan,  or  cor- 
rupt local  officials.  The  right  to  strike  has  been  abridged  by  Esch- 
Cummins  laws,  industrial  courts,  and  the  injunction  abuse,  which 
flourishes  now  as  never  before.  Even  the  fundamental  right  of  pop- 
ular representation  has  been  invaded  by  the  refusal  to  seat  regularly 
elected  workers'  candidates,  and  by  millionaires  flagrantly  buying 
their  way  into  Congress.  Hardly  a  month  passes  by  but  what  some 
hard-won  piece  of  legislation  is  destroyed.  The  Sherman  Anti-Trust 
law,  with  its  fancy  Clayton  Amendment,  has  become  a  laughing- 
stock by  being  used  only  against  Labor,  the  very  one  it  was  supposed 
not  to  apply  to.  The  Seamen's  Act  has  been  rendered  inoperative, 
and  the  noble  Supreme  Court  has  declared  the  Federal  Child  Labor 
Law  unconstitutional.  Likewise,  this  august  body,  in  the  Coronado 
Case,  has  delivered  itself  of  an  American  Taff-Vale  decision  against 
the  unions.  And  now  comes  Judge  Wilkerson  with  his  injunction, 
denying  the  right  to  strike  to  400,000  shopmen  ,and  making  outlaws 
of  them.  Almost  any  one  of  the  workers'  political  rights  may  go  next. 
And  in  the  face  of  all  this  disaster,  the  labor  movement  flounders 
around  helpless  to  stop  the  rout.  Mr.  Gompers'  pet  policy  of  re- 
warding the  workers'  "friends"  and  punishing  their  "enemies"  has 
made  a  political  nobody  of  American  Labor. 

Besides  robbing  the  workers  of  representation  in  the  legislative 
bodies  and  stripping  them  of  all  political  power,  Mr.  Gompers'  polit- 
ical policy  directly  corrupts  and  weakens  the  trade  union  movement 
itself.  By  opening  the  organizations  to  capitalist  party  representa- 
tives, posing  as  "friends"  of  Labor  and  seeking  endorsement,  it  has 
made  the  workers'  unions  convenient  nesting-places  for  all  sorts  of 
political  crooks.  These  sharpers,  in  turn,  have  poisoned  the  selfish 
individuals  in  Labor's  ranks  to  such  an  extent  that  in  many  localities 
selling  out  Labor  politically  for  cold  cash  has  become  a  regular  pro- 
fession of  alleged  labor  leaders.  Much  of  the  bribe-taking  from  em- 
ployers for  industrial  "favors"  that  curses  our  labor  movement  de- 
rives from  the  same  source;  for  once  labor  officials  become  accustomed 
to   betraying   the   workers    politically    it    is   an    easy    step    further    to 


6  BANKRUPTCY  OF  THE  LABOR  MOVEMENT 

betray  them  industrially.  The  shocking  Mulhall  exposures  of  a  few 
years  ago  gave  barely  an  indication  of  the  extent  to  which  capitalist 
politicians  have  poisoned  the  labor  movement,  because  its  doors  are 
open  to  them. 

But,  worst  of  all,  American  Labor's  political  policy  directly  checks 
the  growth  of  class  consciousness  among  the  workers  and  retards 
the  intellectual  development  of  the  labor  movement.  The  acceptance 
of  the  capitalist  parties  as  the  political  expression  of  the  working 
class  necessarily  carries  with  it  also  the  endorsement  of  their  general 
capitalist  point  of  view.  Logically  enough  practically  the  whole  bat- 
tery of  our  trade  union  officials  and  labor  papers  express  almost 
identically  the  same  social  conceptions  as  the  capitalists  and  join  hands 
with  the  latter  in  suppressing  all  activity  tending  to  give  the  work- 
ers a  clear  understanding  of  the  class  nature  of  present  society. 
Only  when  the  workers  organize  politically  as  a  class  do  they  break 
with  capitalist  concepts  and  develop  class  consciousness. 

For  many  years  the  British  labor  movement  went  along  pretty 
much  as  we  are  doing  now,  a  political  cipher  in  the  service  of  the 
capitalist  parties.  With  most  of  its  leaders  preaching  purely  capital- 
istic economics,  naturally  class  consciousness  made  slow  headway. 
But  when  finally,  as  a  result  of  the  Taff-Vale  Decision  in  1901,  the 
movement  was  driven  to  independent  political  action  arid  to  organize 
the  Labor  Party,  these  very  leaders,  in  the  nature  of  things,  were 
compelled  to  advocate,  to  a  greater  or  lesser  extent,  class  solidarity 
and  class  action.  This  broke  the  ice,  and  henceforth  proletarian  in- 
vestigation and  education  found  a  more  congenial  atmosphere.  The 
supposedly  unshakably  conservative  British  workers  began  to  be- 
come class  conscious.  From  that  time  to  this  they  have  made  won- 
derful strides  towards  acquiring  a  revolutionary  point  of  view.  Amer- 
ican workers  will  do  the  same  once  they  break  with  the  capitalist 
parties  and  set  up  a  class  party  of  their  own.  With  its  present  policy 
of  rewarding  its  "friends"  and  punishing  its  "enemies,"  the  American 
labor  movement   is  still  in  the   political   kindergarten. 

Weak  and  Primitive  Unionism 
In  harmony  with  its  undeveloped  social  viewpoint  and  its  in- 
fantile political  organization,  American  Labor's  trade  unions  also  are 
in  a  very  backward  state.  Whether  considered  from  the  standpoint 
of  numerical  strength,  type  of  structure,  or  general  spirit^  of  prog- 
ress, they  fall  far  behind  the  unions  of  many  other  countries.     Even 


BANKRUPTCY  OF  THE   LABOR   MOVEMENT  7 

a  casual  glance  over  the  world's  labor  movement  confirms  this  state- 
ment. 

Regarding  the  question  of  numerical  strength:  At  present  there 
are,  including  all  independent  unions,  not  over  3,500,000  trade  union- 
ists in  this  country,  or  about  1  unionist  to  each  31  of  the  general 
population  of  110,000,000.  Compare  this,  for  example,  with  the  situa- 
tion in  the  two  other  leading  industrial  countries,  Germany  and  Eng- 
land. In  Germany  there  are  somewhat  over  12,000,000  trade  unionists 
out  of  a  total  of  55,0000,000  people,  or  about  1  to  each  4%;  while  in 
England  the  trade  unionists  number  approximately  6,000,000,  or  1  to 
each  7M>  of  her  population  of  44,000,000.  In  other  words,  the  German 
trade  unions,  considering  the  difference  in  the  population  of  the  two 
countries,  are  numerically  about  6  times  as  strong  as  ours,  and  the 
English  about  4  times.  For  our  unions  to  be  as  large  proportionally 
as  those  in  Germany  they  would  have  to  have  no  less  than  24,000,000 
members.  Compare  this  giant  figure  with  the  paltry  3,500,000  mem- 
bers that  our  unions  now  possess  and  a  fair  idea  is  had  of  how  far 
behind  the  American  labor  movement  is  in  this  respect.  In  Germany 
and  England  (not  to  mention  other  countries)  the  great  mass  of  the 
working  class  has  been  organized,  but  here  in  the  United  States 
barely  a   start   has  yet  been  made. 

Structurally  our  trade  unions  make  an  equally  poor  showing. 
Whereas  in  all  other  leading  countries  the  main  labor  movement, 
accepting  the  logic  of  capitalist  consolidation,  have  quite  generally 
endorsed  the  principle  of  but  one  union  for  each  industry  and  are 
making  rapid  strides  towards  its  realization,  the  American  labor  move- 
ment still  clings  firmly  to  the  antiquated  principle  of  craft  unionism. 
Throughout  the  rest  of  the  world  there  are  many  single  unions — such 
as  building,  metal,  railroad,  general  transport,  printing,  etc. — that 
have  been  built  up  recently  by  amalgamating  the  original  craft  organ- 
izations. Others  are  being  constantly  created.  In  England  the  giant 
new  Transport  and  General  Workers'  Union  has  just  been  formed; 
the  Amalgamted  Engineering  Union  is  making  steady  headway  to- 
wards its  avowed  goal  of  one  union  in  the  metal  industry;  likewise 
the  National  Union  of  Railwaymen,  the  Federation  of  Printing  and 
Kindred  Trades,  the  Federation  of  Building  Trades  Operatives,  etc., 
in  their  respective  fields.  Strong  amalgamation  movements  are  afoot 
in  every  industry.  In  addition  plans  are  now  being  discussed  to  lash 
all  the  national  unions  together  and  to  develop  the  whole  labor  move- 
ment  into  one  gigantic   machine.     In   Germany   a    similar   process   of 


8  BANKRUPTCY  OF  THE  LABOR  MOVEMENT 

consolidation  goes  on  constantly.  Already  many  large  industrial  un- 
ions have  been  constructed  from  the  old  craft  organizations.  The 
best-known  of  them  is  the  famous  Metal  Workers'  Union,  with  1,700,- 
000  members.  Gradually  the  entire  labor  movement  is  being  developed 
into  one  organization.*  In  Belgium  the  original  welter  of  craft  unions 
has  been  hammered  together  into  about  a  dozen  industrial  organiza- 
tions, and  plans  are  now  being  carried  through  to  unite  all  these 
into  one  body.  In  Australia  the  largest  unions  in  the  country  have 
declared  for  a  complete  amalgamation  of  all  the  workers'  labor  or- 
ganizations into  a  single  departmentalized  union  to  represent  the 
whole  working  class.  In  Norway  there  is  now  a  committee  at  work 
devising  ways  and  means  to  reorganize  the  entire  craft  union  move- 
ment into  a  series  of  industrial  unions,  all  of  which  shall  be  locked 
together. 

So  it  goes  all  over  the  world  except  in  the  United  States;  every- 
where else  the  workers  are  making  rapid  progress  in  the  necessary 
work  of  transforming  their  primitive  craft  unions  into  moden  indus- 
trial organizations.  But  here  we  are  still  floundering  in  the  mud  of 
craft  unionism,  and  progressing  at  only  a  snail's  pace.  Disregarding 
the  rapid  consolidation  of  the  employers  and  their  wonderful  increase 
in  strength,  American  Labor  plods  along  with  the  19th  century  con- 
dition of  from  10  to  15  autonomous  craft  unions  in  each  industry,** 
and  considers  such  a  primitive  state  of  unorganization  as  the  acme 
of  trade  union  accomplishment.  There  is  hardly  a  breath  of  progress 
anywhere.  Though  our  movement  is  threatened  with  extinction  be- 
cause of  its  lack  of  solidarity  and  centralization,  the  man  who  pro- 
poses a  sensible  plan  of  amalgamation  is  harassed  and  persecuted  by 
the  highest  officials  as  a  fanatic  and  a  disruptor.  At  its  Cincinnati, 
1922,  Convention,  the  A.  F.  of  L.  repudiated  the  principle  of  amalga- 
mation and  endorsed  the  Scranton  declaration  of  21  years  ago,  which 
was   written   before   the   great   modern   capitalist   combinations   were 

*In  Germany  the  General  Federation  of  German  Trade  Unions  (Socialist),  com- 
prising about  two-thirds  of  the  whole  labor  movement,  has  8,000,000  members.  These 
are  combined  into  49  national  unions.  On  the  other  hand,  the  A.  F.  of  L.,  with 
fewer  than  3,000,000  members,  is  split  up  into  no  less  than  117  national  organiza- 
tions. The  average  membership  of  the  unions  in  the  German  Federation  is  approxi- 
mately 163,000,  while  that  of  the  A.  F.  of  L.  unions  is  less  than  24,000.  This 
illustrates  the  much  greater  consolidation  and  concentration  of  trade  unions  in 
Germany  than  in  the  United   States. 

"The  one  exception  is  in  the  case  of  the  United  Mine  Workers  of  America, 
which,  at  least  so  far  as  its  structure  is  concerned,  will  compare  favorably  with  any 
coal   miners'   union   in   the   world. 


BANKRUPTCY  OF  THE  LABOR  MOVEMEN1 

formed.  On  the  other  hand,  the  progressive  German  unions,  which 
are  much  further  advanced  than  the  A.  F.  of  L.,  and  by  no  means 
as  hard  pressed  by  the  employers,  at  their  1922  Leipzig  Convention 
went  on  record  for  amalgamation  generally  and  laid  plans  to  re- 
organize the  whole  labor  movement  on  an  industrial  basis.  In  the 
United  States,  where  capitalist  organization  has  reached  the  highest 
known  type,  the  trade  unions  should  lead  the  world  in  the  matter  of 
numbers  and  structure.  In  point  of  fact,  however,  they  are  not  be- 
yond the  point  reached  generally  by  European  trade  unions  15 
years  ago. 

Invariably  American  labor  leaders,  when  confronted  with  irre- 
futable facts  demonstrating  the  numerical,  structural,  and  intellectual 
inferiority  of  our  labor  movement  as  compared  with  that  of  Europe, 
attempt  to  wave  aside  the  unfavorable  comparison  by  making  the 
broad  assertion  that  trade  unionists  enjoy  better  conditions  in  this 
country  than  any  where  else  in  the  world.  So  far  as  wages  are  con- 
cerned this  is  undeniably  true.  But  it  is  idle  to  say  that  such  is  the 
case  because  American  labor  is  better  organized  or  more  ably  led 
than  European  labor.  Without  belittling  the  accomplishments  of  our 
unions,  it  is  safe  to  say  that  the  determining  factor  in  the  matter  is 
that  the  United  States,  as  compared  with  Europe,  has  long  been  a 
bonanza  country.  Enormously  rich  and  getting  from  2  to  20  times 
greater  production  from  their  employees,  the  capitalists  in  this  coun- 
try are  much  more  inclined  to  yield  a  bit  on  the  wage  scale  of  the 
workers,  unorganized  as  well  as  organized,  than  are  the  employers 
in  poorer  and  slower-going  Europe.  Unquestionably  European  work- 
ers have  to  fight  much  harder  for  wage  increases  than  we  do. 

Nevertheless,  up  to  the  outbreak  of  the  war  at  least,  the  European 
unions  were  able  to  make  a  surprisingly  creditable  showing  in  wages. 
During  a  debate  in  1909  between  Karl  Legien  and  Karl  Kautsky  this 
was  strikingly  illustrated.  In  his  paper,  Die  Neue  Zeit,  Kautsk) 
sought  to  prove  that  trade  union  action  had  little  value.  To  back 
up  his  assertions  he  cited  official  A.  F.  of  L.  statistics  which  showed 
that  the  wage  increases  secured  by  its  affiliated  unions  from  1890,  to 
1907,  had  barely  beat  the  advancing  cost  of  living.  Legien  took  ex- 
ception to  this  argument,  and  refused  to  consider  the  accomplishments 
of  the  A.  F.  of  L.  organizations  as  exhausting  the  possibilities  of 
trade  unionism.  In  a  pamphlet,  Sisyphusarhcit  oder  positiv  Erfolg, 
he  demonstrated  that  the  German   unions  had   made   a   much   better 


io  BANKRUPTCY  OF  THE  LABOR  MOVEMENT 

showing  with  regard  to  wages,  compared  with  the  rising  cost  of  living, 
than  had  the  American  organizations. 

But  in  any  event,  even  if  our  wage  standards  are  somewhat  higher 
than  those  in  other  countries,  certainly  we  have  little  to  brag  about. 
In  the  March,  1922,  wage  hearing  before  the  Railroad  Labor  Board, 
B.  M.  Jewell,  President  of  the  Railway  Employees'  Department  of 
the  A.  F.  of  L.,  stated  that  in  1921,  the  full-time  wages  of  railroad 
shop  mechanics  could  purchase  only  64%  of  the  meat,  fish,  milk,  and 
eggs;  77%  of  the  cereal  foods;  91%  of  the  vegetables;  and  71%  of 
the  butter,  fats,  and  oils  necessary  to  maintain  their  families  at  the 
lowest  level  of  safety.  The  Department  of  Labor  family  budget  calls 
for  an  expenditure  of  $2,303.99  per  year;  whereas  the  wages  of  the 
shop  mechanics,  counted  at  full-time  basis  and  totally  disregarding 
the  terrific  unemployment,  amounted  only  to  $1,884.90.  And  since 
then  their  wages  have  been  slashed  again  about  10%  on  the  average. 
With  strategically  situated  mechanics  in  such  a  condition,  the  deplor- 
able state  of  the  unskilled,  who  get  hardly  half  as  much  wages,  can 
better  be  imagined  than  described. 

"But  a  far  better  criterion  than  wages  to  judge  the  strength  of  a 
labor  movement  is  the  more  vital  matter  of  the  shorter  workday.  In 
this  respect  American  Labor  is  behind  the  rest  of  the  modern  indus- 
trial world.  In  Great  Britain,  Australia,  Italy,  and  New  Zealand, 
the  8-hour  day  has  been  quite  generally  established  by  trade  union 
agreements,  and  in  the  following  countries  national  8-hour  laws  have 
been  enacted  for  industrial  workers  : 

Austria  Jugo-Slavia  Poland 

Checho-Slovakia  Luxembourg  Portugal 

Denmark  Mexico  Russia 

Ecuador  Netherlands  Spain 

Finland  Norway  Sweden 

France  Panama  Switzerland 

Germany  Peru  Uruguay  * 

Compare  this  wide-spread  application  of  the  8-hour  day  with  the 
situation  in  the  United  States.  Many,  if  not  most  of  our  industries, 
still  have-  the  9  and  10-hour  day,  not  to  mention  the  barbaric  12-hour 
day  of  the  steel  mills.  Despite  the  United  States'  great  industrial  ad- 
vantages over  all  its  competitors,  which  should  have  greatly  facili- 
tated the  unions  in  winning  shorter  hours,  this  country  remains  pre- 

"For  comparisons  between  these  laws  and  the  limitations  of  each,  see  U.  S. 
Dep't  of  Labor  Monthly  Labor  Review,   P.   184.   April,   1921. 


BANKRUPTCY  OF  THE  LABOR   MOVEMENT  n 

eminently  the  long  hour  work-day  nation  of  the  world.  This  is  indeed 
a  poor  recommendation  for  the  prowess  of  our  labor  movement. 

Another  matter  which  is  vital  in  determining  the  real  strength 
of  all  labor  movements,  and  in  which  ours  is  sadly  lacking,  is  trade 
union  control  over  industry.  In  many  European  countries  the  trade 
unions  are  so  thoroughly  established  in  almost  every  branch  of  in- 
dustry that  the  employers  have  come  to  accept  them  practically  as 
permanent  institutions.  In  such  lands  trade  unionism  has  become 
recognized  as  an  inevitable  factor  in  industry.  So  well  are  the  work- 
ers organized  that  scabs  are  almost  a  thing  of  the  past.  This  is  not- 
ably the  case  in  England  and  Germany.  In  the  latter  country  the 
trade  unions  have  agreements  covering  every  industry.  No  sane 
employer  hopes  to  dislodge  them,  much  less  break  them  up.  Conse- 
quent upon  this  firm  grip  on  industry,  which  encourages  them  to 
look  forward  to  the  time  when  the  mills  and  factories  will  be  demo- 
cratically owned  and  operated,  the  European  unions  have  worked 
out  elaborate  systems  of  factory  councils,  guilds,  etc.,  to  take  over 
the  management  of  industry,  and  they  have  made  substantial  progress 
in  establishing  these  organizations. 

But  things  are  profoundly  different  in  the  United  State.  Here  the 
unions  have  such  a  slight  grip  upon  industry  that  they  hardly  dream 
of  such  things  as  factory  councils  and  guilds.  Indeed,  outside  of  the 
clothing  industry,  very  few  of  our  labor  leaders  would  even  know 
what  such  things  are.  The  nearest  approach  we  have  had  to  such 
a  movement  was  the  one  centering  around  the  Plumb  Plan,  and 
Mr.  Gompers  neatly  smothered  that.  As  yet  our  trade  unions  have 
hardly  won  a  semblance  of  recognition.  Constantly  they  have  to 
fight  for  their  very  existence.  In  not  a  single  industry  have  they  been 
able  to  force  the  type  of  recognition  that  is  common  in  many  Euro- 
pean countries.  The  closest  there  is  to  such  recognition  is  in  the 
case  of  the  four  railroad  train  service  organizations,  and  even  these 
are  constantly  threatened.  America  is  peculiarly  the  land  of  the 
"open  shop."  The  "American  Plan"  is  the  correct  name.  Nowhere 
else  but  here  is  such  an  abomination  to  be  found.  With  the  great 
industries  almost  totally  unorganized,  and  with  vast  armies  of  scabs 
available,  the  employers  of  this  country  have  contempt  for  the  trade 
unions.  They  look  upon  them  as  a  passing  phase,  as  presumptuous 
organizations  which  must  and  will  be  eliminated  at  the  first  oppor- 
tunity.    The  present   wholesale   smashing  of  unions,  which   threatens 


12  BANKRUPTCY  OF  THE  LABOR  MOVEMENT 

the   life   of  the  entire   labor  movement,   is   the   most   eloquent   testi- 
monial to  the  weakness  of  American  Labor. 

International  Relations,  Journalism,  Co-operative.- 
In  no  other  phase  does  the  unparalled  conservatism  and  back- 
wardness of  the  American  Labor  movement  come  to  light  more 
strikingly  than  in  the  latter's  relations  to  the  labor  organizations  of 
other  countries.  At  present  there  are  two  great  world  labor  move- 
ments ;  one,  the  International  Federation  of  Trade  Unions,  with  head- 
quarters in  Amsterdam,  and  the  other,  the  Red  International  of  Labor 
Unions,  with  headquarters  in  Moscow.  The  former  is  passive  and 
reformist,  the  latter  is  militant  and  revolutionary.  All  the  impor- 
tant labor  movements  of  the  world  are  affiliated  to  one  or  the  other 
of  these  two— that  is  all  except  ours.  The  American  trade  union  move- 
ment stands  aloof  altogether,  on  the  ground  that  both  are  too  revo- 
lutionary. According  to  Mr.  Gompers,  who  pulled  the  A.  F.  of  L.  out 
of  the  Amsterdam  International  a  couple  of  years  ago,  even  that  yellow 
organization,  whose  leaders  undoubtedly  stopped  the  world  revolution 
and  saved  capitalism  during  the  big  labor  upheavals  in  Germany, 
France,  Italy,  etc.,  after  the  war,  is  much  too  radical  for  American 
workingmen  to  associate  with.  This  withdrawal  from  Amsterdam 
has  made  us  the  laughing  stock  of  the  international  labor  world, 
reformist  and  revolutionary  alike.  To  the  militant  unionists  of  other 
countries  it  is  a  profound  mystery  how,  in  this  land  of  advanced  and 
aggressive  capitalistm,  the  labor  movement  can  be  so  spineless  intel- 
lectually as  to  fear  affiliation  with  even  the  timid  Amsterdam  Inter- 
national. 

In  the  matter  of  a  labor  press  the  American  working  class  is 
particularly  weak.  As  for  the  A.  F.  of  L.  itself,  its  journalistic  efforts 
are  deplorable.  On  the  one  hand  it  gets  out  the  hard-boiled  American 
Federationist,  with  its  news  and  editorial  columns  filled  with  reac- 
tionary attacks  upon  everything  even  mildly  progressive,  and  its  ad- 
vertising space  littered  up  with  scab  advertisements;  and  on  the 
other  hand,  the  anaemic  A.  F.  of  L.  News  Letter,  with  its  poor  attempt 
at  being  a  news  service  for  the  labor  press  generally.  Likewise  the 
international  journals,  with  rare  exceptions  are  dry  as  dust  and  reac- 
tionary. Rigidly  censored  by  the  controlling  officials,  there  is  no 
freedom  of  discussion  in  their  columns.  They  sound  no  real  proletar- 
ian note,  nor  do  they  carry  on  vital  educational  work.  Their  tech- 
nical   trade    education    and    constant    repetition    of    stereotyped   petty 


BANKRUPTCY   OF  THE  LABOR  MOVEMENT  13 

capitalist  ideas  might  well  be  left  for  the  employers  to  propagate. 
Nor  are  the  local  papers  as  a  rule  any  better.  Many  of  them  are  con- 
temptible grafting  sheets,  the  like  of  which  cannot  be  fcund  in  any 
other  country.  Such  parasitic  papers,  almost  always  stout  defenders 
of  Gompersism,  make  their  living  by  campaigning  against  everything 
healthy  in  the  labor  movement.  Their  favorite  method  is  to  print 
vicious  attacks  against  all  progressive  movements  in  the  trade  unions 
and  then,  on  the  strength  of  these,  "sandbag"  the  employers  into 
giving  them  advertising  and  flat  donations  of  money.  There  are  scores 
of  such  "rat"  sheets,  some  operating  independently  and  some  with 
the  endorsement  of  local  central  labor  councils,  pouring  a  flood  of 
poison  into  the  trade  union  movement.  Nearly  all  important  industrial 
centers  are  infested  with  them.  Pittsburgh,  for  instance,  has  three, 
viz.:  National  Labor  Journal,  Labor  World,  and  National  Labor  Tribune. 
All  of  them  joined  hands  with  the  employers  to  defeat  the  great  steel 
strike  of  1919.  And  the  worst  of  this  journalistic  shame,  which  could 
exist  in  no  other  labor  movement,  is  that  the  A.  F.  of  L.  officialdom 
makes  no  effort  to  obliterate  it.  But  this  officialdom  spares  no  effort 
to  crush  the  revolutionary  press.  Characteristically  just  now  it  is 
engaged  in  a  war  against  the  Federated  Press,  the  best  labor  news 
gathering  agency  in  the  world  and  one  of  the  few  institutions  of 
which  our  labor  movement  may  be  really  proud. 

In  the  field  of  co-operative  enterprise  the  American  labor  move- 
ment makes  the  same  poor  showing  that  it  does  in  so  many  other 
phases  of  labor  activity.  All  over  Europe,  in  England,  Germany, 
France,  Italy,  Scandinavia,  "Belgium,  Holland,  etc.,  the  co-operative 
movement  is  vast  and  vigorous  and  a  real  institution  in  the  life  of  the 
people.  It  involves  great  armies  of  members  and  hundreds  of  mil- 
lions of  capital.  But  in  the  United  States  the  movement  is  just  be- 
ginning. This  country  has  long  been  the  despair  of  earnest  co-oper- 
ators. An  apparently  incurable  blight,  traceable  to  the  ignorance, 
cupidity,  and  indifference  of  our  labor  leaders,  has  cursed  and  ruined 
their  efforts.  Only  within  the  past  few  years,  with  the  development 
of  co-operative  stores  among  the  miners,  the  founding  of  the  labor 
banks,  and  occasional  other  ventures  here  and  there,  has  any  real 
headway  been  made.  Compared  with  that  in  Europe,  the  co-oper- 
ative movement  in  the  United  States  is  still  in   its  swaddling  clothes. 

Reactionary  Leadership 

The  prevailing  type  of  American  labor  leadership  is  a  sore  afflic- 
tion  upon    the   working   class.     Our   higher   officialdom   swarms    with 


i4  BANKRUPTCY  OF  THE  LABOR  MOVEMENT 

standpatters  and  reactionaries  such  as  would  not  be  tolerated  in  any 
other  country.  Mr.  Gompers  himself  personifies  the  breed.  He  is 
the  arch-reactionary,  the  idol  of  all  the  holdbacks  in  the  labor  move- 
ment. Possibly,  as  some  allege,  he  was  a  progressive  at  the  time  the 
A.  F.  of  L.  was  formed,  but  now  he  is  the  undisputed  world's  prize 
labor  reactionary.  In  many  respects  he  is  even  more  reactionary  than 
the  very  capitalists  themselves.  A  case  in  point  is  his  present  atti- 
tude towards  Russia.  In  that  distressed  country  millions  of  people, 
famine  stricken,  are  dying  of  starvation.  The  labor  movement  and 
the  liberals  of  the  world,  forgetting  political  differences,  are  rallying 
to  their  support  by  sending  food  and  money.  Even  the  cold-hearted 
capitalistic  United  States  Government,  not  to  speak  of  various  other 
bourgeois  organizations,  was  moved  to  make  a  substantial  contribu- 
tion. But  in  the  face  of  all  this  bitter  need  Mr.  Gompers,  a  bound 
slave  to  his  insane  hatred  for  everything  radical,  stands  unmoved. 
The  cries  of  millions  of  starving  women  and  children  go  unheard  by 
him.  Not  a  word  has  he  spoken  in  their  behalf,  not  a  dollar  has  his 
organization  raised  to  relieve  their  sufferings.  Mr.  Gompers  would 
starve  Soviet  Russia  into  re-establishing  capitalism.  This  brutal  pro- 
gram, now  frankly  abandoned  even  by  most  capitalistic  politicians, 
is  on  a  par  with  that  of  Kolchak  and  Semenoff.  American  Labor's 
policy  towards  Russia,  dictated  by  the  blind  hatred  of  Mr.  Gompers, 
is  a  disgrace  which  should  make  every  workingman  bow  his  head  in 
shame.* 

American  Labor  leadership  has  displayed  crass  incompetence  in 
organizing  the  masses  industrially.  The  relatively  small  number  of 
trade  unionists  in  the  United  States  is  ample  proof  of  that.  As  a 
shining  example  of  our  movement's  weakness  in  the  organizing  de- 
partment let  us  again  cite  Mr.  Gompers.  Considered  as  a  labor  organ- 
izer he  is  a  first  class  failure.  Because  of  his  incompetency  much  of 
the  blame  for  the  unorganized  state  of  the  working  class  attaches  to 
him  personally.  Never  during  the  long  tenure  of  his  office,  at  least 
not  since  the  "stormy  '80's,"  has  he  developed,  or  allowed  anyone  else 


*On  a  par  with  Mr.  Gompers'  reactionary  Russian  policy  was  his  attitude  towards 
the  infamous  "red"  raids  engineered  by  Attorney-General  Palmer.  Never  was  a 
more  dastardly  crime  committed  against  the  rights  of  the  workers.  But  Mr. 
Gompers  made  no  protest.  Quite  evidently  Mr.  Palmer  was  a  man  after  his  own 
heart.  Characteristic  enough  it  is  that  on  May  1st,  1922,  with  Mr.  Palmer  in  political 
limbo  and  even  the  reactionary  Republican  politicians  refusing  to  stoop  to  such  con- 
temptible artifices,  it  was  Mr.  Gompers  who  issued  the  flaming  warnings  in  the 
capitalist  press  against  the   impending   red    peril. 


BANKRUPTCY  OF  THE  LAHOR  MOVEMENT  15 

to  develop  a  comprehensive  plan  to  organize  the  masses  of  the  work- 
ers. Opportunity  after  opportunity  he  has  allowed  to  slip  by  unused, 
to  the  sad  detriment  of  the  labor  movement. 

Consider  the  war  situation  for  example:  That  was  a  marvelous 
chance  to  organize  the  great  body  of  the  working  class  and  to  un- 
shakably  intrench  the  trade  unions.  The  workers  were  most  stra- 
tegically situated  and  enjoyed  wonderful  political  and  industrial 
power.  Had  there  been  even  a  mediocre  organizer,  instead  of  a 
"labor  statesman,"  at  the  head  of  our  movement,  great  armies  of  toilers 
could  have  been  drawn  into  the  labor  organizations.  A  general  na- 
tional organization  campaign  should  have  been  mapped  out  and  in- 
tensive, systematic  drives  for  members  started  in  all  the  industries. 
Given  even  ordinarily  competent  direction,  such  a  movement  would 
have  achieved  tremendous  success.  But  of  course,  nothing  of  the  kind 
was  done.  The  intellectually  sterile  Mr.  Gompers  failed  utterly  to 
perceive  the  needs  and  opportunities  of  the  situation.  He  was  too 
busy  winning  the  war  and  making  the  world  safe  for  democracy.  Flat- 
tered by  great  capitalists  and  basking  in  the  sunshine  of  a  fickle  pub- 
lic opinion,  he  completely  neglected  the  vital  business  of  organizing 
the  workers  and  spent  his  time  with  such  questionable  affairs  of  state 
as  putting  across  the  Versailles  Treaty.  He  worked  out  no  general 
strategy,  no  unified  campaign  of  organization  for  the  labor  movement. 
And  no  one  else  was  in  a  position  to  do  so.  Consequently  the  various 
organizations  had  to  go  ahead  as  best  they  could.  Everybody  started 
whatever  he  pleased.  While  Mr.  Gompers  dallied  with  his  capitalist 
friends,  the  Chicago  Federation  of  Labor  was  compelled  to  launch 
the  great  drives  in  the  packing  and  steel  industries.  To  organize  such 
movements  was  clearly  the  duty  of  Mr.  Gompers'  office,  and  if  it 
failed  to  do  so  he  alone  was  to  blame.  The  situation,  from  an  organ- 
izing standpoint,  was  chaotic.  Little  substantial  was  accomplished. 
With  the  general  result  that,  because  of  Mr.  Gompers'  inefficiency, 
because  he  had  no  inkling  of  what  should  have  been  done,  the  great 
masses  of  the  workers  were  not  organized  during  the  golden  oppor- 
tunity presented  by  the  war  time.  And  now  we  are  paying  the  pen- 
alty in  the  great  "open  shop"  drive  that  is  smashing  the  unions.  Had 
the  workers  been  organized  during  the  war,  and  they  easily  could 
have  been,  the  "open  shop"  drive  would  never  have  started  agair.st 
the  deeply  rooted  trade  unions.  Had  Mr.  Gompers  been  even  a  third 
rate  organizer  it  would  have  changed  the  whole  face  of  industrial 
America. 


16  BANKRUPTCY   OF  THE  LABOR  MOVEMENT 

All  over  the  world  the  labor  movement  suffers  grievously  from 
unscrupulous,  self-seeking  leaders,  but  nowhere  so  much  as  in  the 
United  States.  Here  we  are  infested  with  breeds  of  them  entirely 
without  parallel  anywhere  else.  Only  in  Amrica  can  be  found  known 
crooks  and  convicted  criminals  functioning  as  labor  officials,  many 
of  whom  have  become  enormously  wealthy  through  robbing  both 
employers  and  workers.  This  condition  is  a  world  scandal;  the  active 
unionists  of  other  countries  simply  cannot  comprehend  it.  They  have 
their  reactionaries  a-plenty.  But  such  open  thievery  is  peculiar  to 
the  United  States  alone.  It  is  a  drastic  proof  of  the  low  level  of  our 
labor  leadership. 

But  worse  even  than  the  plain  grafters  are  the  large  body  of 
leaders  who,  destitute  of  all  idealism  and  real  proletarian  feeling,  look 
upon  the  labor  movement  simply  as  a  convenient  means  to  well-paid 
jobs  of  power  and  influence.  They  kill  all  life  and  progress  in  the 
workers'  organizations.  Mr.  Gompers  is  the  undisputed  king  of  this 
type.  He  is  the  champion  office-holder  of  them  all.  The  way  he  has 
hung  on  for  forty  years  is  a  world  marvel.  And  the  labor  movement 
has  paid  dearly  enough  for  it.  Mr.  Gompers  has  never  considered  any 
movements  of  the  workers  from  any  other  angle  except  what  effect 
they  will  have  upon  his  tenure  of  office. 

Like  all  other  labor  politicians,  but  much  more  pronouncedly, 
Mr.  Gompers  shirks  responsibility.  No  matter  how  burning  the  need 
for  vigorous  action  to  save  some  critical  situation,  he  will  initiate 
nothing.  The  labor  world  may  tumble  about  his  ears,  but  to  protect 
his  own  interests,  he  stands  pat.  With  him  everything  is  all  right 
so  long  as  he  does  not  have  to  assume  responsibility  that  may  breed 
him  enemies.  His  philosophy  is,  better  to  lose  a  thousand  strikes  and 
organizing  opportunities  through  inaction  than  to  risk  one  aggressive 
movement,  the  failure  of  which  might  enable  someone  to  "get  some- 
thing on  him."  He  moves  ahead  only  when  pushed.  This  negative 
attitude,  this  habitual  refusal  to  initiate  anything  or  to  assume  any 
responsibility  caused  the  failure  to  organize  the  workers  generally 
during  the  war;  this  it  was  that  made  Mr.  Gompers  sabotage  the  steel 
campaign  from  beginning  to  end,  when  it  got  under  way  in  spite  of 
him.  And  this  do-nothing  policy  it  is  which  constantly  paralyses  the 
labor  movement  in  its  brain  and  heart  and  reduces  its  vitality  to  the 
vanishing  point.  It  is  a  policy  fatal  to  Organized  Labor;  but  it  is 
good  for  Mr.  Gompers'  own  personal  ends,  and  that  to  him,  is  of 
course  supreme  justification  for  it. 


BANKRUPTCY  OF  THE  LABOR  MOVEMENT  17 

More  than  simply  failing  to  initiate  progressive  movements,  Mr. 
Gompers  is  actually  a  valiant  fighter  for  things  as  they  are  in  the 
labor  movement.  A  curious  twist  of  this  policy  mak<'s  him  play  the 
role  of  a  sort  of  weak  king  among  powerful  nobles.  The  international 
union  presidents  are  the  nobles.  Things  have  conspired  to  make  them 
into  petty  despots  in  their  respective  spheres.  They  are  little  nabobs. 
With  unlimited  autonomy  and  points  of  view  to  correspond  with  their 
narrow  craft  interests,  they  naturally  carry  on  a  wrangling,  unsoli- 
daric  movement  fatal  to  the  interests  of  the  working  class  as  a 
whole.  The  great  need  of  the  labor  movement  is  that  the  power  of 
these  nabobs  be  clipped,  and  that  it  be  absorbed  by  the  general  organ- 
ization, the  A.  F.  of  L.  The  national  movement,  as  such,  must  be 
strengthened.  But  it  is  exactly  this  that  Mr.  Gompers  fails  to  do. 
On  the  contrary,  he  defends  the  vicious  nabob  system  even  more 
militantly  than  the  nabobs  themselves.  He  fights  every  attempt  to 
strengthen  the  A.  F.  of  L.  or  to  make  it  function  as  an  effective  cen- 
tral organization.  He  battles  to  preserve  all  the  privileges  of  the  nabob 
international  presidents,  disastrous  though  these  may  be  to  class  soli- 
darity and  progress.  This  has  given  him  wonderful  prestige  with  the 
nabobs  as  a  "safe"  man.  Thus,  strangely  enough,  by  keeping  his  own 
organization — the  A.  F.  of  L.  proper — weak  and  functionless  he  per- 
sonally waxes  great  and  powerful.  And  again,  for  his  advancement, 
the  labor  movement  pays  a  bitter  price.  The  labor  politician,  of 
which  Mr.  Gompers  is  the  shining  example,  is  the  old  man  of  the  sea 
of  American  Labor. 

Severe  though  many  of  the  foregoing  criticisms  of  American 
Labor  may  be,  no  truth-seeking  worker,  free  from  chauvinistic  bias, 
can  deny  their  correctness.  Although  the  American  labor  movement 
has  some  admirable  qualities  (which  will  be  indicated  as  this  pamphlet 
progresses),  nevertheless,  in  the  main,  it  is  miles  and  miles  behind 
the  labor  movements  of  other  important  capitalist  countries.  Our 
labor  movement's  non-revolutionary  outlook,  its  lack  of  social  vision, 
is  unique  in  the  international  labor  world  ;  likewise  its  want  of  an  or- 
ganized, mass  working  class  political  party.  Our  trade  unions  are 
primitive  to  a  degree  in  their  structure  and  they  cling  tenaciously  to 
the  antiquated  craft  form,  discarded  by  workers  in  other  countries; 
they  are  exceedingly  weak  in  numbers,  encompassing  only  a  small 
body  of  workers,  instead  of  the  great  mass,  as  in  Germany,  England 
and  elsewhere;  they  have  not  succeeded,  as  compared  with  European 


18  BANKRUPTCY  OF  THE  LABOR  MOVEMENT 

unions,  in  winning  the  shorter  workday  and  in  establishing  the  foun- 
dations of  democracy  in  industry;  the  breath  of  progress  is  not  in 
them.  The  international  policy  of  our  movement  is  a  joke,  when  not 
a  tragedy.  Our  labor  journalism  is  colorless,  stupid,  and  often  corrupt; 
our  co-operative  movement  is  in  its  infancy;  our  labor  leadership  is 
incomparably  reactionary.  While  the  labor  movements  abroad,  keep- 
ing pace  with  a  growing  capitalism,  have  gone  ahead  developing  new 
conceptions,  consolidating  their  organizations,  and  winning  new  con- 
quests, we  have  practically  stood  still,  stagnant,  unresponsive,  un- 
progressive.  Finally  we  have  arrived  at  the  paradoxical  situation 
where,  apparently  in  contradiction  to  economic  principles,  the  United 
States  has  at  once  the  most  highly  developed  industrial  system  and 
the  weakest  working  class  organization  of  the  modern  capitalist 
world.  So  decrepit  and  unfit  is  our  labor  movement  that,  unless  ways 
are  found  to  revive  and  re-invigorate  it,  it  is  actually  threatened  with 
extinction  by  the  employers  in  the  present  great  "open  shop"  drive, 
The  American  labor  movement  is  bankrupt. 


BANKRUPTCY   OF  THE  LABOR  MOVEMENT  19 

CHAPTER  II 

Cause  of  the  Bankruptcy 

The  weakness  of  the  American  labor  movement,  its  lack  of  social 
vision  and  its  general  backwardness  politically  and  industrially,  as 
compared  with  the  labor  movements  of  other  countries,  has  long  been 
a  matter  of  common  knowledge.  It  cannot  be  denied  or  disputed,  nor 
do  real  labor  students  try  to  do  either.  Their  aim  is  to  explain  it,  to 
find  out  the  reasons  for  the  paradoxical  situation  of  the  world's  most 
advanced  capitalistic  country  possessing  such  a  primitive  working 
class  movement.  Two  explanations  for  this  condition,  widely  accepted 
among  labor  men  and  students  generally,  are  (1)  that  the  influx  of  so 
many  millions  of  immigrants,  with  their  innumerable  racial,  language, 
national,  and  religious  differences,  has  enormously  complicated  the 
problems  confronting  the  labor  movement  and  hindered  the  work  of 
unionization  and  education  by  bringing  together  a  practically  unor- 
ganizable  mass  in  the  industries,  and  (2)  that  the  workers  of  America, 
because  of  the  existence  of  the  free  land  for  so  long  and  the  opportun- 
ities presented  by  the  unexampled  industrial  expansion,  have  been 
better  able  to  make  a  living,  and  consequently  have  not  felt  the  need 
for  organization  and  a  revolutionary  spirit  to  such  an  extent  as  the 
oppressed  workers  of  Europe.  Or,  in  other  words,  that  too  many  im- 
migrants and  too  much  prosperity  are  to  blame  for  the  extreme  back- 
wardness of  Organized  Labor  in  the  United  States. 

Foreigners  As  M ilh  wis 

Regarding  the  first  of  the  explanations:  Although,  undoubtedly, 
the  presence  of  so  many  nationalities  in  the  industries  makes  the 
problem  of  organization  more  difficult,  it  is  by  no  means  an  insur- 
montable  obstacle.  The  situation  is  not  nearly  so  bad  as  it  has  beei. 
painted.  The  "unorganizability"  of  the  foreign-born  workers  is  a  very 
convenient  cloak  for  labor  leaders  to  cover  up  their  inefficiency  and 
the  weaknesses  of  an  unfit  craft  unionism.  The  fact  is,  the  immigrant 
workers  are  distinctly  organizable,  often  even  more  so  than  the  native 
Americans.  This  has  been  demonstrated  time  and  again  in  strikes 
during  the  past  10  years.  In  the  big  Lawrence  strike  of  1912  it  was 
the  immigrant  workers,  a  score  of  different  nationalities,  who  were 
the  backbone  of  the  great  struggle.     Likewise  in   the  packing   house 


20  BANKRUPTCY  OF  THE  LABOR  MOVEMENT 

movement  of  1917-21,  the  whole  thing  centered  around  the  foreigners, 
mostly  Slavs.  They  organized  the  unions  in  the  first  place  (the  Amer- 
icans quite  generally  refusing  to  come  in,  until  after  a  settlement  had 
been  secured),  and  they  are  the  ones  who  made  the  final  desperate 
fight.  The  same  experience  was  had  in  the  great  1918-19  organizing 
campaign  and  strike  in  the  steel  industry.  Although  in  some  mills 
there  were  as  many  as  54  nationalities,  they  joined  hands  readily  and 
formed  trade  unions.  There  was  much  more  difficulty  in  organizing 
the  minority  of  Americans  than  the  big  majority  of  heterogenuous 
foreigners.  And  when  the  historic  struggle  with  the  steel  trust  came 
the  foreign  workers  covered  themselves  with  undying  glory.  They  dis- 
played the  very  highest  type  of  labor  union  qualities. 

The  majority  of  the  membership  of  the  United  Mine  Workers  of 
America  are  foreigners.  Yet  that  is  one  of  the  very  best  labor  organ- 
izations in  this  country.  Indeed,  one  can  search  the  world's  labor 
movement  in  vain  to  find  a  union  with  a  more  valiant  record.  But  the 
best  illustration  of  the  organizability  of  the  foreigners  is  to  be  found 
in;  the  clothing  trades.  In  that  industry  the  unions  are  made  up  of  a 
general  conglomeration  of  nationalities,  principally  Jews,  Poles,  Ital- 
ians, and  Lithuanians.  The  Americans  form  but  a  small  minority  of 
the  membership  and  almost  nothing  of  the  administration.  Yet  the 
unions,  all  of  them,  are  miles  in  advance  of  the  ordinary  American 
trade  union.  In  fact,  they  will  compare  with  the  average  European 
labor  bodies.  Most  of  the  criticisms  of  the  American  labor  movement, 
outlined  in  Chapter  I,  do  not  apply  to  these  organizations,  made  up 
chiefly  of  immigrants.  They  are  the  one  bright  spot  in  a  generally 
dismal  movement. 

Again  it  must  be  said  that,  although  somewhat  complicating  the 
problems  of  the  labor  movement,  the  immigrant  workers  cannot  be 
seriously  blamed  for  its  present  deplorable  condition.  Intellectually 
they  are  radical  and  receptive  of  the  most  advanced  social  programs 
If  they,  making  up  the  bulk  of  the  working  forces  in  the  great  indus- 
tries, have  not  been  organized  industrially  and  politically  before  now 
it  is  immediately  because  of  the  utter  sterility  and  incompetence  of 
the  Gompers  regime. 

Prosperity  Not  a  Deterrent 
To  urge  the  comparative  prosperity  of  the  American  working  class 
as  an'  explanation  of  the  backwardness  of  our  labor  movement  is  just 
as  futile  as  to  blame  it  upon  the  foreigners.     The  fact  is  that  excep- 


BANKRUPTCY  OF  THE  LABOR   MOVEMEN1  21 

tional  prosperity,  instead  of  being  a  deterrent,  is  a  direct  stimulus  to 
labor  organization  and  radicalism.  The  worker?  progress  best,  intel- 
lectually and  in  point  of  organization,  under  two  general  conditions 
the  antipodes  of  each  other,  (1)  during  periods  of  devastating  hard- 
ship, (2)  in  eras  of  so-called  prosperity.  When  suffering  extreme  pri- 
vation they  are  literally  compelled  to  think  and  act,  and  when  the 
pressure  of  the  exploiter  is  light,  during  good  times,  they  take  courage 
and  move  forward  of  their  own  volition.  The  static  periods,  when 
very  little  is  accomplished  in  either  an  educational  or  organizational 
way,  are  when  times  are  neither  very  bad  nor  very  good.  Then  both 
factors  for  progress,  heavy  pressure  and  stirred  ambitions,  operate  at 
a  minimum. 

Russia  and  Germany,  in  their  revolutions,  gave  conclusive  proofs 
of  the  tremendously  rapid  spread  of  labor  organization  and  radicalism 
when  the  workers  are  under  terrific  pressure  from  the  exploiters,  and 
many  years'  experience  all  over  the  world  has  demonstrated  that  the 
labor  movement  also  makes  good  progress  under  the  very  reverse 
conditions  of  "prosperity."  Australia  is  a  classical  example.  That  has 
long  been  a  land  of  "good  times"  and  "opportunity."  An  abundance  of 
cheap  land  has  been  constantly  at  hand,  labor  has  always  been  scarce, 
and  unemployment  practically  nonexistent.  If  there  were  anything  to 
the  theory  that  prosperity  kills  the  militancy  of  the  workers  then 
certainly  the  Australian  labor  movement  might  be  expected  to  be 
weak  and  insipid.  But  in  reality  it  is  one  of  the  most  advanced  work- 
ing class  organizations  to  be  found  anywhere  in  the  world,  and  it  has 
been  such  for  many  years  past.  This  is  no  accident  or  contradiction. 
Australian  Labor  is  strong,  not  in  spite  of  the  prevailing  "prosperity." 
but  because  of  it.  It  is  exactly  since  opportunity  is  plentiful  and 
labor  scarce,  which  means  that  the  employers  are  to  some  extent  de- 
prived of  their  powerful  ally  unemployment,  that  the  workers'  fight 
is  easier  and  they  are  encouraged  to  make  greater  and  greater  de- 
mands upon  their  exploiters.  Germany,  before  the  war,  was  another 
typical  example  of  the  working  of  this  principle.  It  was  by  far  the 
most  prosperous  country  in  Europe,  and  consequently  it  also  had  the 
best  organized  and  most  intelligently  radical  working  class. 

Even  in  the  United  States  can  be  traced  the  benefits  conferred 
upon  Organized  Labor  by  "opportunity"  and  "prosperity."  The  West 
has  always  been  the  land  of  opportunity,  the  traditional  place  of  labor 
shortage  and  high  wages  in  this  country;  and  likewise  it  has  ever  been 
the  natural  home  of  militant  labor  unionism  and  radicalism  in  general. 


22  BANKRUPTCY  OF  THE  LABOR  MOVEMENT 

It  is  in  the  East,  where  labor  has  been  most  plentiful,  wages  lowest, 
and  opportunity  scarcest  for  the  worker  of  small  means,  that  labor 
organization  and  revolutionary  understanding  have  made  slowest  prog- 
ress. By  the  same  token,  when  hard  times  prevail  over  the  country 
the  labor  unions  become  weak,  and  the  workers,  defeated,  grow  pessi- 
mistic and  lose  all  daring  and  imagination.  But  when  the  hard  times 
are  succeeded  by  a  wave  of  "prosperity"  the  workers'  cause  picks  up 
at  once;  the  unions,  victorious,  grow  rapidly  and,  having  had  a  taste 
of  power,  they  are  ready  for  further  conquests,  no  matter  how  rad- 
ical. This  tendency  was  well  illustrated  during  the  war  and  the  boom 
time  following  it.  Never  were  the  workers  more  prosperous,  never 
were  wages  higher,  job  conditions  better,  and  working  hours  shorter 
than  in  this  period.  But  the  prosperity,  instead  of  injuring  the  labor 
movement,  gave  it  the  greatest  stimulus,  physically  and  intellectually, 
in  its  history.  The  workers,  acting  as  they  always  do  under  such 
favorable  circumstances,  poured  into  the  organizations  by  hundreds 
of  thousands.  Then  the  latter,  tremendously  invigorated  by  this 
enormous  influx  of  new  strength  and  finding  the  capitalists'  fighting 
ability  greatly  handicapped  because  of  the  labor  shortage,  insisted 
upon  concessions  and  conditions  such  as  they  hardly  dared  dream  of 
in  pre-war  times.  A  basic  radicalism  developed  throughout  the  work- 
ing class,  not  the  classic  Marxian  revolutionary  understanding,  it  is 
true,  but  a  closely  related  deep  yearning  and  striving  for  more  power 
over  industry  and  society  generally.  Naturally  enough  also  it  was  in 
1919,  when  the  railroad  unions  were  at  the  very  zenith  of  their  power 
and  influence,  that  they  announced  the  Plumb  Plan  to  take  the  rail- 
roads out  of  the  hands  of  their  present  owners. 

The  workers,  particularly  in  a  backward  labor  movement  like  ours, 
learn  by  doing.  It  is  just  when  they  enjoy  greatest  power  and  well- 
being,  in  times  of  prosperity,  that  they  are  most  stimulated  to  desire 
and  demand  more.  Because  this  is  the  case,  because  the  workers 
habitually  take  advantage  of  every  lessening  of  the  pressure  upon 
them  by  expanding  their  organizations  and  increasing  their  demands, 
periods  of  abounding  prosperity  are  periods  of  danger  to  capitalism. 
They  are  eras  of  genuine  progress  to  the  working  class,  even  as  are 
the  times  of  unbearable  hardships.  The  explanation  that  the  back- 
wardness of  American  Labor  is  due  to  too  much  prosperity  will  not 
stand  up.  The  workers  as  a  class  do  not  become  enervated  by  pros- 
perity, they  are  energized  by  it  and  developed  into  militancy.  Be- 
cause American  workers  have  been  comparatively  well  off  is  a  reason, 


BANKRUPTCY  OF  THE  LABOR  MOVEMENT  23 

not  that  they  should  have  a  weak  labor  movement,  but  that  their 
organizations,  political  and  industrial,  should  be  powerful,  and  revolu- 
tionary. 

The  Real  Cause,  Dual  Unionism 

The  American  labor  movement  is  in  its  present  deplorable  back- 
ward condition  not  because  of  the  reactionary  influence  of  the  immi- 
grant workers,  or  because  of  the  stultifying  effect  of  the  higher 
standard  of  living  prevailing  in  this  country.  This  is  plain  when  a 
serious  study  is  made  of  the  matter.  Under  certain  circumstances 
both  of  these  forces,  particularly  the  former,  may  exert  a  hindering 
influence  on  the  development  of  labor  organization,  but  at  most  they 
are  only  minor  factors.  The  real  cause  of  the  extraordinary  condition 
must  be  sought  elsewhere.  And  it  is  to  be  found  in  the  fatal  policy 
of  dual  unionism  which  has  been  practiced  religiously  for  a  genera- 
tion by  American  radicals  and  progressives  generally.  Because  of  this 
policy  thousands  of  the  very  best  worker  militants  have  been  led  to 
desert  the  mass  labor  organizations  and  to  waste  their  efforts  in  vain 
efforts  to  construct  ideally  conceived  unions  designed  to  replace  the 
old  ones.  In  consequence  the  mass  labor  movement  has  been,  for 
many  years,  systematically  drained  of  its  life-giving  elements.  The 
effect  has  been  shatteringly  destructive  of  every  phase  and  manifest- 
ation of  Organized  Labor.  Dual  unionism  has  poisoned  the  very  springs 
of  progress  in  the  American  labor  movement  and  is  primarily  respon- 
sible for  its  present  sorry  plight. 

In  order  to  appreciate  the  destructive  effects  of  dual  unionism  it 
is  necessary  to  understand  the  importance  to  Labor  of  the  militant 
elements  that  have  been  practically  cancelled  by  the  dual  union  policy: 
Every  experienced  labor  man  knows  that  the  vital  activities  of  the 
labor  movement  are  carried  on  by  a  small  minority  of  live  individuals, 
so  few  in  number  as  to  be  almost  insignificant  in  comparison  to  the 
organization  as  a  whole.  The  great  mass  of  the  membership  are  slug- 
gish and  unprogressive.  In  an  average  local  union  of  1,000  members, 
for  example,  not  more  than  100,  or  10%  of  the  whole,  will  display 
enough  interest  and  intelligence  even  to  attend  the  regular  meetings. 
And  of  this  100  usually  not  more  than  half  a  dozen  will  take  an  active 
part  in  the  proceedings.  In  other  words,  the  actual  carrying  on  of  the 
real  work  of  the  labor  movement  depends  upon  a  minority,  which  in 
the  present  state  of  things,  does  not  exceed  1%  of  the  mass. 

This  militant  minority  is  of  supreme  importance  to  every  branch 


24  BANKRUPTCY  OF  THE  LABOR  MOVEMENT 

of  the  labor  movement.  It  is  the  thinking  and  acting  part  of  the 
working  class,  the  very  soul  of  Labor.  It  works  out  the  righting  pro- 
grams and  takes  the  lead  in  putting  them  into  execution.  It  is  the 
source  of  all  real  progress,  intellectual,  spiritual,  and  organizational, 
in  the  workers'  ranks.  It  is  "the  little  leaven  that  leaveneth  the  whole 
lump."  The  militant  minority,  made  famous  by  the  Russian  revolu- 
tion as  the  "advance  guard  of  the  proletariat,"  is  the  heart  and  brain 
and  nerves  of  the  labor  movement  all  over  the  world. 

The  fate  of  all  labor  organization  depends  directly  upon  the  effec- 
tive functioning  of  these  militant,  progressive  spirits  among  the  ig- 
norant and  sluggish  organized  masses.  In  England,  Germany,  and 
other  countries  with  strong  labor  movements  the  militants  have  so 
functioned.  They  have  remained  within  the  old  trade  unions  and  acted 
as  the  practical  teachers,  stimulators,  and  leaders  of  the  masses  there 
assembled.  Consequently  they  have  been  able  to  communicate  to  these 
masses  something  of  their  own  understanding  and  revolutionary  fight- 
ing spirit,  and  to  make  their  movements  flourish  and  progress.  But 
in  the  United  States  dual  unionism  for  years  destroyed  this  natural 
liason  between  the  militants  and  the  masses,  which  is  indispensible 
to  the  health  and  vigor  of  Organized  Labor.  It  withdrew  the  mili- 
tants from  the  basic  trade  unions,  and  left  the  masses  there  leaderless. 
This  destroyed  the  very  foundations  of  progress  and  condemned  every 
branch  of  the  labor  movement,  political,  industrial,  co-operative,  to 
stagnation  and  impotency.  Dual  unionism,  so  to  speak,  severed  the 
head  from  the  body  of  American  Labor. 

History  of  Dual  Unionism 
Before  indicating  more  directly  the  devastating  effects  of  dual 
unionism  it  will  be  well  for  us  to  glance  for  a  moment  at  the  histor- 
ical development  of  that  tendency  in  this  country :  Dual  unionism  is 
essentially  a  product  of  utopianism ;  it  is  the  result  of  a  striving  to 
reach  the  revolutionary  goal  by  a  shortcut  of  ready-made,  perfec- 
tionist organizations.  In  the  early  days  of  our  labor  movement,  30 
to  40  years  ago,  it  played  little  or  no  part.  Then  the  militants,  not 
yet  having  worked  out  the  fine-spun  union  theories  and  cartwheel 
charts  of  our  times,  accepted  the  primitive  mass  unions  of  those  days 
as  their  working  organization.  Consisting  principally  of  Anarchists 
and  Socialists,  these  early  fighters  took  a  very  active  part  in  the 
everyday  struggles  of  the  organized  workers.  They  sought  diligently, 
not  to  coax  the  workers  to  desert  one  set  of  supposedly  unscientific 


BANKRUPTCY  OF  Till-:  LABOR   MOVEMENT  25 

unions  and  to  join  another  set  supposedly  perfect,  but  to  give  vigor 
and  intelligence  to  the  fight  of  the  primitive  organizations.  Without 
realizing  it  they  acted  in  harmony  with  the  most  modern  militant  tac- 
tics. The  result  was  that  the  workers  responded  to  their  efforts,  and 
our  trade  union  movement  speedily  took  its  place,  as  a  progressive, 
fighting  organization,  right  in  the  forefront  of  international  Organized 
Labor.  Though  free  land  and  opportunity  were  much  more  prevalent 
then  than  now,  they  were  powerless  to  stem  the  radicalism  of  the 
working  class. 

During  the  '80s,  when  the  revolutionists  were  particularly  active 
in  the  old  unions,  the  American  labor  movement  was  an  inspiration 
to  the  workers  of  the  world.  The  Knights  of  Labor  were  radical  and 
aggressive.  Most  of  the  leaders  were  Socialists.  Even  Gompers  pa- 
raded as  a  revolutionary.  In  1887  he  said:  "While  keeping  in  view 
a  lofty  ideal,  we  must  advance  towards  it  through  practical  steps, 
taken  with  intelligent  regard  for  pressing  needs.  I  believe  with  the 
most  advanced  thinkers  as  to  ultimate  aims,  including  the  abolition 
of  the  wage  system.'  *  The  trade  unions  were  also  radical.  It  was  not 
the  K.  of  L,.  as  many  believe,  but  the  Federation  of  Trades  and  Labor 
Unions  (later  the  A.  F.  of  L.)  that  called  and  engineered  the  great 
general  strike  of  1886.  This  historic  movement  entranced  the  work- 
ing class  rebels  all  over  Europe,  not  only  because  it  was  the  first 
modern  attempt  to  win  the  universal  8-hour  workday,  but  especially 
because  it  marked  the  first  successful  application  of  their  beloved 
weapon,  the  general  strike  of  all  trades  in  all  localities.  In  after  years 
they  named  as  Labor's  international  holiday  the  day,  May  1st,  upon 
which  the  strike  began.  In  those  stirring  times  our  labor  unions  stood 
alone  in  the  world  for  militancy  and  fighting  spirit.  This  the  inter- 
national labor  movement  looked  upon  as  perfectly  natural.  The  pre- 
vailing conception  was  that  inasmuch  as  the  United  States  (even  in 
those  early  days)  had  the  most  advanced  type  of  capitalism  it  was 
bound  to  have  also  the  most  advanced  labor  unions.  The  common 
expectancy  was  that  this  country  would  be  the  first  to  have  a  work- 
ing class  revolution. 

Even  after  the  unsatisfactory  outcome  of  the  great  8-hour  strike 
and  the  execution  of  the  rebel  leaders,  Parsons,  Spies,  Fisher,  Engel, 
and  Lingg  in  connection  with  the  Haymarket  riot,  the  Socialists  and 
other  radicals  enjoyed  great  power  and  influence  in  the  trade  unions 
for  several  years.     They  were  on  friendly  terms  with   the  leaders  of 


*J.    R.    Commons,   History   of  Labour   in    the    United   Stairs     Vol.    II.    I'.    458. 


20  BANKRUPTCY  OF  THE  LABOR  MOVEMENT 

the  Federation  and  constantly  making  headway  with  their  program. 
Yet  they  had  a  steady  fight  to  make  with  the  reactionary  elements. 
This  was  being  carried  on  successfully  until  the  appearance  of  Daniel 
DeLeon  as  a  power  among  the  radicals.  DeLeon,  with  his  dynamic 
personality  and  alluring  program  of  separtism,  was  quickly  able  to 
put  a  stop  to  the  work  in  the  trade  unions  and  to  start  the  rebel 
movement  definitely  upon  the  road  to  dual  unionism. 

DeLeon  and  Dual  Unionism 

Few  men  have  made  a  greater  impression  upon  the  American 
labor  movement  than  Daniel  DeLeon.  His  principal  accomplishment 
was  to  work  out  the  intellectual  premises  of  dual  unionism  so  effect- 
ively as  to  force  its  adoption  and  continuance  as  the  industrial  pro- 
gram of  the  whole  revolutionary  movement  for  a  generation.  He  was 
an  able  writer,  an  eloquent  speaker,  a  clever  reasoner,  and  a  domi- 
nant personality  generally.  But  despite  his  brilliance  he  was  essen- 
tially a  sophist  and  a  Utopian.  He  particularly  lacked  a  grasp  of  the 
process  of  evolution.  He  made  the  fundamental  mistake  of  consider- 
ing the  old  trade  unions  as  static,  unchangeably  conservative  bodies, 
and  in  concluding  that  the  necessary  Socialist  unions  had  to  be  cre- 
ated as  new  organizations.  He  did  not  know  that  the  labor  movement 
is  a  growth,  intellecually  from  conservatism  to  radicalism,  and  struc- 
turally from  the  craft  to  the  industrial  form.  DeLeon's  industrial 
program  of  dual  unionism  was  merely  the  typical  Utopian  scheme  of 
throwing  aside  the  old,  imperfect,  evolving  social  organism  and  striv- 
ing to  set  up  in  its  stead  the  new,  perfect  institutions. 

DeLeon  came  to  acquire  considerable  prestige  in  the  radical  move- 
ment about  1888.  Of  a  hasty,  impulsive,  and  autocratic  nature,  he 
soon  fell  foul  of  the  two  great  branches  of  the  labor  movement,  the 
American  Federation  of  Labor  and  the  Knights  of  Labor.  He  broke 
with  the  A.  F.  of  L.  over  a  skirmish  which  occurred  in  1890  between 
that  organization  and  the  New  York  Central  Labor  Federation.  The 
latter  body,  controlled  by  the  Socialists,  accepted  the  affiliation  of  a 
local  branch  of  the  Socialist  Labor  Party.  But  when  its  delegate, 
Lucien  Sanial,  appeared  at  the  following  convention  of  the  A.  F.  of  L. 
he  was  denied  a  seat.  Unquestionably  Gompers  was  right  in  this  con- 
troversy, for  until  this  day  labor  organizations,  no  matter  how  radi- 
cal, do  not  permit  the  direct  affiliation  of  political  parties.  But  the 
affair  embittered  the  hasty  DeLeon,  who  repudiated  the  A.  F.  of  L. 
and  turned  his  attention  to  the  then  decadent  Knights  of  Labor.     In 


BANKRUPTCY  OF  THE  LABOR  MOVEMENT  27 

that  organization,  grace  to  his  great  activity  and  natural  ability,  he 
soon  acquired  substantial  power.  At  the  1894  General  Assembly  of 
the  K.  of  L.  he  joined  forces  with  Sovereign  against  Grand  Master 
Workman  Powderly.  Together  they  overthrew  the  latter,  but  the 
victorious  Sovereign,  disregarding  his  political  bargain,  refused  to  re- 
ward DeLeon  for  his  assitance  by  appointing  Lucian  Sanial  editor  of 
the  official  national  journal.  This  provoked  DeLeon's  bitter  ire,  and 
he  broke  with  the  K.  of  L.  These  experiences,  first  with  the  A.  F. 
of  L.  and  then  with  the  K.  of  L.,  convinced  him  that  neither  of  these 
organizations  were  fit  material  wherewith  to  build  up  the  Socialist 
labor  movement  he  had  in  mind.  Therefore,  in  the  following  year, 
1895,  he  launched  the  Socialist  Trades  and  Labor  Alliance,  a  radical 
organization  designed  to  supplant  the  whole  conservative  labor  move- 
ment. In  the  past  there  had  been  dual  unions  organized  in  opposi- 
tion to  the  old  trade  unions  (witness  for  example  the  American  Rail- 
way Union  founded  by  Eugene  V.  Debs),  but  the  S.  T.  &  L.  A.  was  tht- 
first  of  a  general  character  and  a  revolutionary  makeup.  Its  founda- 
tion clearly  marked  the  embarkation  of  the  radical  movement  upon  its 
long-continued  and  disastrous  program  of  dual  unionism. 

Of  course,  DeLeon  did  not  draw  his  dual  union  program  simply 
out  of  thin  air.  Naturally  there  were  present  many  factors  which 
made  it  seem  the  plausible,  if  not  inevitable,  method  to  follow.  De- 
spite their  militancy,  the  trade  unions  of  the  time  (while  not  worse 
than  those  of  England,  where  dual  unionism  got  no  footing)  were 
comparatively  weak  in  numbers,  stupid  in  their  philosophy,  and  in- 
fested with  job-hunters  and  reactionaries.  To  the  rebels  of  those  days, 
impatient  and  inexperienced  as  they  were,  it  looked  an  unpromising 
task  to  convert  these  primitive  groupings  into  Socialist  organizations. 
It  seemed  much  simpler  to  start  the  labor  movement  all  over  again, 
this  time  upon  "scientific"  principles.  At  that  early  date,  because  of 
the  youth  of  the  movement,  they  knew  nothing  of  the  unworkability 
of  dual  unionism.  In  1895  DeLeon's  plan,  new  discarded  as  Utopian, 
seemed  logical  and  practical,  almost  an  inspiration,  in  fact. 

Scores  of  Dual  Unions 

The  Socialist  Trades  and  Labor  Alliance  was  still-born.  It  never 
amounted  to  more  than  a  handful  of  militants,  the  masses  refusing 
to  rally  to  its  standard.  The  same  forces  that  ruin  all  such  unions 
effectively  checked  its  growth.  But  if  the  S.  T.  &  L.  A.  failed  as  an 
organization  the  idea  behind  it,  of  revolutionary  dual  unionism,  made 


28  BANKRUPTCY  OF  THE  LABOR  MOVEMENT 

steady  headway.  More  and  more  the  radical  movement,  from  left  to 
right,  became  convinced  that  the  trade  unions  were  hopeless,  more 
and  more  it  turned  its  attention  to  dual  unionism.  DeLeon  himself 
was  a  powerful  factor  in  this  development. 

In  1899  the  Socialist  Labor  Party  split,  largely  because  of  the  trade 
union  question,  and  gave  birth  to  the  Socialist  Party.  For  a  time  it 
looked  as  though  the  new  body  might  declare  definitely  for  the  trade 
unions  and  aganist  dual  unionism.  But  it  soon  developed  a  powerful 
left  wing,  led  by  Debs,  Haywood  and  others,  who  advocated  dual 
unionism  as  militantly  as  DeLeon  himself  had  done  in  the  old  party. 
In  the  meantime,  the  dualist  concept  had  become  enlarged  from  that 
of  simply  a  separate  Socialist  labor  movement  to  that  of  a  separate 
Socialist  labor  movement  with  an  industrial  form.  Revolutionary  dual 
unionism  became  revolutionary  dual  industrial  unionism.  Sympa- 
thizers multiplied  apace. 

Soon  the  whole  revolutionary  and  progressive  movements  became 
impregnated  with  the  dual  union  idea.  Even  the  right  wing  elements, 
who  had  previously  fought  against  DeLeon  over  the  matter,  largely 
adopted  it.  Dual  unions  in  single  industries  sprang  up  here  and  there. 
But  it  was  in  1905  that  the  movement  came  to  a  head.  The  S.  T.  & 
L.  A.  being  hopelessly  moribund,  a  new  general  dual  union  organiza- 
tion was  deemed  necessary,  so,  with  a  great  fanfare  of  trumpets,  the 
whole  radical  movement  gathered  in  Chicago  to  launch  it.  There  were 
Socialists,  Socialist  Laborites,  Anarchists,  Industrialists,  and  Pro- 
gressives. The  result  of  their  historic  convention  was  the  Industrial 
Workers  of  the  World,  an  organization  devised  to  supplant  the  whole 
trade  union  structure  and  to  realign  the  labor  movement  upon  a  new 
revolutionary  basis. 

The  I.  W.  W.  went  forth  the  embodiment  of  great  hopes  and  ab- 
sorbing the  efforts  of  the  best  workers  in  the  country.  But,  never- 
theless, it  could  not  triumph  over  the  obstacles  ever  confronting  such 
dual  organizations.  The  workers  simply  refused  to  quit  the  old  trade 
unions  that  had  cost  them  so  much  trouble  and  strife  to  build.  After 
several  years,  therefore,  the  I.  W.  W.  was  quite  generally  recognized 
as  a  failure,  and  the  rebel  elements  began  to  turn  away  from  it.  But 
the  peculiar  thing  was  its  failure  did  not  discourage  the  dual  union 
idea,  anymore  than  had  the  downfall  of  the  S.  T.  &  L.  A.  On  the 
contrary,  that  idea  grew  and  flourished  better  than  ever. 

Strangely  enough,  the  longer  the  dual  union  policy  was  followed, 
the  more  logical  it  seemed,  notwithstanding  its   failure  to  build  any 


BANKRUPTCY  OF  THE  LABOR   MOVEMENT 

new  unions  of  consequence.  This  was  because  of  the  fact  that  as  the 
revolutionary  elements  continued  their  tactics  of  quitting  the  old 
unions  the  latter,  suffering  the  loss  of  their1  best  life's  blood,  withered 
and  stagnated.  More  and  more  they  became  the  prey  of  standpat- 
ters and  reactionaries;  less  and  less  they  presented  an  aspect  calcu- 
lated to  appeal  to  revolutionaries.  Dual  unionism  became  almost  a 
religion  among  rebels.  No  longer  would  they  even  tolerate  discussion 
of  the  proposition  of  working  within  the  old  unions.  The  Workers' 
International  Industrial  Union,  the  One  Big  Union  (both  of  which 
aimed  at  covering  all  industries)  and  scores  of  dual  unions  in  single 
industries  were  launched  later  to  put  the  beloved  program  into  effect. 
Though  all  of  them  failed  almost  completely,  still  the  separatist 
policy  maintained  its  ground  with  wonderful  vitality.  The  whole  rad- 
ical and  progressive  movement,  from  the  extreme  left  to  the  liberals, 
was  shot  through  and  through  with  it. 

This  widespread  devotion  to  dual  unionism,  which  has  never  been 
equalled  in  any  other  country,  lasted  until  about  the  middle  of  1921. 
At  that  time  a  bright  light  broke  upon  the  rebels.  All  of  a  sudden  they 
became  aware  of  the  fallacy  of  withdrawing  from  the  organized 
masses.  The  intellectual  structure  of  dual  unionism  fell  to  the  ground 
with  a  crash.  With  a  profound  change  of  tactics,  which  for  swiftness 
has  never  been  paralleled  in  world  labor  history,  the  bulk  of  them 
repudiated  the  separatist  policy  they  had  followed  so  loyally  for  a 
generation  and  turned  their  attention  to  developing  the  old  trade 
unions  into  modern,  aggressive  labor  organizations.  But  of  this  re- 
markable shift  we  will  say  more  further  along. 


30  BANKRUPTCY   OF  THE  LABOR  MOVEMENT 


CHAPTER  III. 

Ravages  of  Dual  Unionism 

Dual  unionism  is  a  malignant  disease  that  sickens  and  devitalizes 
the  whole  labor  movement.  The  prime  fault  of  it  is  that  it  wastes  the 
efforts  of  those  vigorous  elements  whose  activities  determine  the  fate 
of  all  working  class  organization.  It  does  this  by  withdrawing  these 
rare  and  precious  militants  from  the  mass  trade  unions,  where  they 
serve  as  the  very  mainspring  of  vitality  and  progress,  and  by  mis- 
directing their  attention  to  the  barren  and  hopeless  work  of  building 
up  impossible,  Utopian  industrial  organizations.  This  drain  of  the 
best  blood  of  the  trade  unions  begins  by  enormously  weakening  these 
bodies  and  ends  by  making  impotent  every  branch  of  the  labor  move- 
ment as  well ;  for  the  welfare  of  all  Organized  Labor,  political,  indus- 
trial, co-operative,  educational,  depends  upon  the  trade  unions,  the 
basic  organizations  of  the  working  class,  being  in  a  flourishing  condi- 
tion. Dual  unionism  saps  the  strength  of  the  trade  unions,  and  when 
it  does  that  it  undermines  the  structure  of  the  entire  working  class 
organization. 

The  Dual  Union's  Fail 

Since  the  dual  union  program  was  outlined  almost  thirty  years 
ago  by  DeLeon  it  has  wasted  a  prodigeous  amount  of  invaluable 
rebel  strength.  Tens  of  thousands  of  the  very  best  men  ever  pro- 
duced by  the  American  labor  movement  have  devoted  themselves  to 
it  whole-heartedly  and  have  expended  oceans  of  energy  in  order  to 
bring  the  longed-for  new  labor  movement  into  realization.  But  they 
were  pouring  water  upon  sand.  The  parched  Sahara  of  dual  indus- 
trial unionism  swallowed  up  their  efforts  and  left  hardly  a  trace  be- 
hind. The  numerically  insignificant  dual  unions  of  today  are  a  poor 
bargain  indeed  in  return  for  the  enormous  price  they  have  cost. 

Consider,  for  example,  the  Industrial  Workers  of  the  World:  The 
amount  of  energy  and  unselfish  devotion  lavished  upon  that  organiza- 
tion would  have  wrought  miracles  in  developing  and  extending  the 
trade  unions;  but  it  has  been  powerless  to  make  anything  substantial 
of  the  I.  W.  W.  Today,  17  years  after  its  foundation,  that  body  has 
far  fewer  members  (not  to  speak  of  much  less  influence)  than  it  had 
at  its  beginning.    The  latest  available  official  financial  reports  show  a 


BANKRUPTCY  OF  THE  LABOR  MOVEMENT  31 

membership  of  not  more  than  15,000,  whereas  in  1905  it  had  40,000.  Even 
its  former  revolutionary  spirit  has  degenerated  until  the  organization 
has  now  become  little  more  than  assort  of  league  to  make  war  upon 
the  trade  unions  and  to  revile  and  slander  struggling  Soviet  Russia. 
The  I.  W,  W.  is  a  monument  to  the  folly  of  dual  unionism. 

The  One  Big  Union  of  Canada  is  another  example  of  rebel  effort 
wasted  in  dual  unionism.  Four  years  ago  it  started  out  with  a  great 
blare  of  trumpets  and  about  40,000  members.  Its  advent  threw  dis- 
sension into  the  old  trade  unions  and  shattered  their  ranks.  They  lost 
heavily  in  membership,  the  militants  pulling  out  the  more  active  ele- 
ments on  behalf  of  the  O.  B.  U.  Yet,  today,  this  organization,  de- 
spite the  great  effort  put  into  it,  has  but  an  insignificant  membership, 
not  over  4,000  at  most,  and  its  constructive  influence  is  about  in  pro- 
portion. It  was  a  costly,  ill-fated  experiment,  and  in  the  main  has 
worked  havoc  to  Canadian  labor.  The  Workers'  International  Indus- 
trial Union,  another  universal  dual  union,  has  occupied  the  attention 
of  the  Socialist  Labor  Party's  active  spirits  for  14  years,  but  now  it 
can  muster  only  a  few  hundred  actual  members.  Similar  records  of 
disastrous  waste  of  rebel  effort  are  shown  by  the  dozens  of  dual  unions 
started  in  the  various  single  industries,  all  of  which  literally  burned 
up  the  energies  of  the  militants.  Except  for  those  in  the  textile,  food, 
and  shoe  industries,  which  have  secured  some  degree  of  success,  these 
dual  unions  have  all  failed  completely.  They  have  absorbed  untold 
labor  of  the  best  elements  among  the  workers  and  have  yielded  next 
to  nothing  in  return.  Dual  unionism  is  a  useless  and  insupportable 
squandering  of  Labor's  most  precious  life  force.  It  is  a  bottomless 
pit  into  which  the  workers  have  vainly  thrown  their  energy  and 
idealism. 

Devitalizing  the  Trade  Unions 

The  waste  of  rebel  strength,  caused  so  long  by  dual  unionism, 
has  reacted  directly  and  disastrously  upon  the  trade  unions.  For 
many  years  practically  all  the  radical  papers  and  revolutionary 
leaders  in  this  country  were  deeply  tinged  with  dual  unionism.  In 
their  program  the  ideas  of  secessionism  and  progressive  unionism 
were  welded  into  one.  The  consequence  was  that  as  fast  as  the 
active  workers  in  the  trade  unions  became  acquainted  with  the 
principles  of  revolutionary  unionism  they  also  absorbed  the  idea  of 
dualism.  Thus  they  lost  faith  and  interest  in  their  old  organiza- 
tions, either  quitting  them  entirely  for  some  dual  union,  or  becoming 


32  BANKRUPTCY  OF  THE  LABOR  MOVEMENT 

so  much  dead  timber  within  them.  The  general  outcome  of  this  whole- 
sale turning  away  of  the  progressive  minority  was  to  divorce  the 
very  idea  of  progress  from  the  trade  unions.  It  nipped  in  the  bud 
the  growing  crop  of  militants,  the  only  element  through  which  virile 
life  and  development  could  come  to  the  old  organizations.  Dual  union- 
ism dried  up  the  very  spring  of  progress  in  the  trade  unions,  it  con- 
demned them  to  sterility  and  stagnation.  It  was  a  long-continued 
process  of  slow  poisoning  for  the  labor  movement. 

A  disastrous  effect  of  this  systematic  demoralization  and  draining 
away  of  the  militants  is  that  it  has  thrown  the  trade  unions  almost 
entirely  into  the  control  of  the  organized  reactionaries.  In  all  labor 
movements  the  unions  can  prosper  and  grow  only  if  the  progressive 
elements  within  them  organize  closely  and  wage  vigorous  battle  all 
along  the  line  against  the  conservative  bureaucracy.  The  militants 
must  build  machines  to  fight  those  of  the  reactionaries.  But  in  the 
United  States  dual  unionism  has  prevented  the  creation  of  such  pro- 
gressive machines.  By  its  incessant  preaching  that  the  trade  unions 
were  hopeless  and  that  nothing  could  be  done  with  them,  it  dis- 
couraged even  those  militants  who  did  stay  within  the  unions  and 
prevented  them  from  developing  an  organized  opposition  to  the  bur- 
eaucrats. Poisoned  by  dual  union  pessimism  about  the  old  organiza- 
tions and  altogether  without  a  constructive  program  to  apply  to  them, 
the  militants  stood  around  idly  for  years  in  the  trade  unions  while 
the  reactionary  forces  intrenched  themselves  and  ruled  as  they  saw 
fit.  Because  of  their  dualistic  notions  the  militants  practically  de- 
serted the  field  and  left  it  to  the  uncontested  sway  of  their  enemies. 
If  the  American  labor  movement  is  now  hard  and  fast  in  the  grip 
of  a  stupid  and  corrupt  bureaucracy,  totally  incapable  of  progress, 
dual  unionism,  through  its  demoralization  of  the  trade  union  opposi- 
tion, is  chiefly  to  blame. 

During  the  great  movement  of  the  packinghouse  workers  the  in- 
difference of  the  radicals  towards  the  old  unions  wrought  particular 
havoc.  A  handful  of  rebels,  free  from  dual  union  ideas,  were  pri- 
marily responsible  for  the  historic  movement.  Soon  they  found  them- 
selves in  a  finish  fight  with  the  conservatives  for  control  of  the  newly 
formed  unions.  Occupying  the  strategic  position  in  the  organizations, 
especially  in  the  Chicago  stockyards,  they  begged  the  dualistic  radi- 
cals, who  worked  in  the  industry,  to  come  in  and  help  them  control 
the  unions,  offering  to  place  them  in  secretaryships  and  other  im- 
portant posts.    Had  this  offer  been  accepted,  it  would  have  certainly 


BANKRUPTCY  OF  THE  LABOR  MOVEMENT 

resulted  in  the  big  packinghouse  unions,  then  numbering  over  100,000 
members,  coming  entirely  under  progressive  leadership.  But  so 
strong  was  the  spirit  of  dualism  at  that  time,  in  1919,  that  the  out- 
standing rebels,  mostly  extreme  left-wingers,  would  not  participate 
constructively  in  the  trade  unions  even  under  such  exceptionally 
favorable  circumstances.  They  refused  the  invitation  with  insults 
and  contempt.  The  consequence  w?s  that  the  few  militants  within 
the  old  unions  were  swamped  by  the  reactionaries,  who  soon  wrecked 
the  whole  organization  by  their  incompetence  and  corruption.  It 
was  a  splendid  opportunity  lost.  Similar  opportunities  existed  in 
other  industries.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  if  the  radicals  had  been  free 
of  dual  unionist  tendencies  during  the  war  period  and  had  been  active 
in  the  trade  unions,  the  great  bulk  of  the  working  class  would  have 
been  organized,  instead  of  the  comparatively  few  that  were  gotten 
together  by  the  reactionaries,  who  controlled  the  unions. 

Disruption  Through  Secession 

Dual  unionism's  steady  drain  upon  the  vitality  of  the  trade  unions 
by  withdrawing  and  demoralizing  the  militants  piecemeal  has  been 
ruinous  enough,  but  the  many  great  secession  movements  it  has 
given  birth  to  have  made  the  situation  much  worse.  It  is  the  partic- 
ular misfortune  of  the  American  labor  movement  that  just  when 
some  trade  union  is  passing  through  a  severe  crisis,  as  a  result  of 
industrial  depression,  internal  dissension,  a  lost  strike,  or  some  other 
weakening  influence,  the  dual  union  tendency  breaks  out  with  unusual 
virulence  and  a  secession  movement  develops  that  completes  the 
havoc  already  wrought.  Exactly  at  the  time  the  militants  are  needed 
the  most  to  hold  the  organization  together  is  just  when  they  are 
the  busiest  pulling  it  apart.  In  such  crises  those  who  should  be  the 
union's  best  friends  become  its  worst  enemies.  This  has  happened 
time  and  again.  During  the  past  two  years,  for  exemple,  the  long- 
shoremen and  seamen  have  had  bitter  experience  with  such  break- 
away movements.  Both  organizations  had  lost  big  strikes,  and  both 
were  in  critical  need  of  rebuilding  and  rejuvenating  by  the  progressive 
elements.  But  just  at  this  critical  juncture  the  latter  failed,  and,  in- 
stead of  strengthening  the  unions,  set  about  tearing  them  to  pieces 
with  secession  movements.  Four  or  five  dual  unions  appeared,  and 
when  they  got  done  attacking  the  old  organizations  and  fighting 
among  themselves    all   traces   of   unionism   were   wiped   out    in    many 


34  BANKRUPTCY   OF  THE  LABOR  MOVEMENT 

ports.  Similar  attacks  are  now  being  directed  against  the  weakened 
railroad  shopmen's  unions. 

A  great  secession  movement,  typical  for  its  disastrous  effects, 
was  the  famous  "outlaw"  strike  of  the  switchmen  in  1920.  That  ill- 
fated  movement  began  because  of  a  widespread  discontent  among  the 
rank  and  file  at  the  neglect  of  their  grievances  by  the  higher  union 
officials.  It  was  a  critical  situation,  but  had  there  been  a  well-organ- 
ized militant  minority  on  hand  the  foment  could  have  been  given  a 
constructive  turn  and  used  as  a  means  not  only  to  satisfy  the  demands 
of  the  workers  but  also  to  defeat  the  reactionaries.  But  the  long- 
continued  dualistic  propaganda  in  the  railroad  industry  had  effective- 
ly prevented  the  organization  of  such  a  minority.  Hence,  leaderless, 
the  movement  ran  wild  and  culminated  in  the  "outlaw"  strike.  Then, 
as  usual,  the  secessionist  tendency  showed  itself  and  a  new  organiza- 
tion was  formed.  The  final  result  was  disaster  all  around  for  the 
men.  The  strike  was  lost,  many  thousands  of  active  workers  were 
blacklisted,  the  unions  were  weakened  by  the  loss  of  their  best  men, 
and  the  grip  of  the  reactionaries  on  the  organization  was  strength- 
ened by  the  complete  breakup  of  the  rebel  opposition.  The  "outlaw" 
strike  of  1920  was  one  of  the  heavy  penalties  American  workers  have 
paid  for  their  long  allegiance  to  Utopian  dual  unionism. 

Likewise  typical  of  the  ruin  wrought  by  dual  unionism  was  the 
movement  that  gave  birth  to  the  Canadian  One  Big  Union  in  1918. 
Freeing  themselves  for  the  moment  from  the  dual  union  obsession,  the 
rebels  had  raised  the  banner  of  industrial  unionism  in  the  old  trade 
unions,  and  the  workers,  seeing  at  last  an  escape  from  reactionary 
policies  and  leadership,  responded  en  masse.  Union  after  union  passed 
into  revolutionary  control,  and  the  movement  swept  Western 
Canada  like  a  storm.  It  seemed  that  finally  an  organization  of  mili- 
tants, without  which  there  could  be  no  progress,  was  about  to  be 
definitely  established  in  the  trade  unions.  But  just  when  the  move- 
ment was  most  promising  the  dualists  got  the  upper  hand  and  steered 
the  whole  business  into  the  quagmire  of  secession  by  launching  the 
O.  B.  U.  as  a  new  labor  movement.  Havoc  resulted.  The  new  union, 
of  course,  got  nowhere,  and  the  old  ones  were  split  and  weakened  by 
dissensions  and  the  loss  of  many  thousands  of  their  very  best  work- 
ers. But,  worst  of  all,  the  budding  organized  minority  within  the 
trade  unions  was  wrecked,  and  the  organizations  passed  completely 
into  the  control  of  the  reactionaries.  The  O.  B.  U.  secession  set  back 
the  whole  Canadian  labor  movement  for  years. 


BANKRUPTCY   OF  THE  LABOR   MOVEMENT  35 

Breaking  ihh  Western  Federation  of  Miners 

One  of  the  great  tragedies  caused  by  dual  unionism  was  the 
smashing  of  the  Western  Federation  of  Miners.  This  body  of  metal 
miners,  organized  in  1893,  was  in  its  early  days  a  splendid  type  of 
labor  union.  Industrial  in  form  and  frankly  revolutionary,  it  carried 
on  for  many  years  a  spectacular  and  successful  struggle  against  the 
Mine  Owners'  Association.  Brissenden  says  that  its  strikes  in  Coeur 
d'Alene,  Cripple  Creek,  Leadville,  Telluride,  Idaho  Springs,  etc.,  were 
"the  most  strenuous  and  dramatic  series  of  strike  disturbances  in  the 
history  of  the  American  labor  movement."  Time  after  time  the  miners 
armed  themselves  and  fought  it  out  with  the  gunmen  and  thugs  of 
the  mining  companies.  Their  valiant  battles  attracted  world-wide 
attention.  * 

But  this  great  organization,  unquestionably  one  of  the  best  ever 
produced  by  the  American  labor  movement,  has  long  since  been 
wrecked  both  in  point  of  numbers  and  spirit.  Insignificant  in  size, 
it  has  also  become  so  conservative  as  to  be  ashamed  of  its  splendid 
old  name.  It  is  now  known  as  the  International  Union  of  Mine,  Mill 
and  Smelter  Workers.  This  pitiful  degeneration  of  the  Western  Fed- 
eration of  Miners  was  caused  directly  by  dual  unionism.  Some  detail 
is  necessary  in  order  to  show  how  it  happened: 

To  begin  with  we  must  understand  that  in  its  best  days  only  a 
few  of  the  W.  F.  of  M.  membership,  not  over  5%  at  most,**  were 
active  and  revolutionary.  This  small  minority,  highly  organized,  oc- 
cupied all  the  strategic  points  of  the  union.  Thus  they  were  able 
to  communicate  something  of  their  own  revolutionary  spirit  to  the 
mass  as  a  whole.  The  organized  rebels  literally  compelled  the  W. 
F.  of   M.  to  be   a   virile  fighting  organization. 

In  1905,  the  W.  F.  of  M.  was  one  of  the  unions  that  formed  the 
I.  W.  W.  It  remained  part  of  that  organization  for  about  two  years, 
when  it  withdrew.  The  militant  elements,  the  ones  who  had  made 
the  W.  F.  of  M.  what  it  was,  were  bitterly  opposed  to  the  with- 
drawal. For  the  most  part  they  stayed  in  the  I.  W.  W.  and  allowed 
the  W.  F.  of  M.  to  go  its  way  without  them.  Hundreds  of  the  best 
men,  including  such  fighters  as  Haywood,  St.  John,  etc.,  deserted  the 

•The  history  of  the  W.  F.  of  M.  gives  the  lie  direct  to  tin-  argument  thai  pro* 
perity  kills  the  militancy  of  the  workers.  That  union  was  made  up  mostly  of  Amen 
can  horn  workers  and  operated  in  what  was  then  the  most  prosperous  section  of  the 
country,    the    Rocky    Mountain    district. 

••Estimated   by   Vincent    St.   John,    former   \V.    1".    of    M.    militant. 


36  BANKRUPTCY  OF  THE  LABOR  MOVEMENT 

old  organization,  either  by  quitting  it  altogether  or  by  becoming  neg- 
ative factors  in  it.  The  passage  of  the  W.  F.  of  M.  through  the  I. 
W.  W.  served  to  sift  out  the  active  workers,  to  rob  the  W.  F.  of  M. 
of  its  very  soul.  The  W.  F.  of  M.  went  into  the  I.  W.  W.  a  revolu- 
tionary organization;  it  came  out  of  it,  if  not  actually  conservative, 
then  at  least  definitely  condemned  to  that  fate. 

After  the  W.  F.  of  M.'s  withdrawal  from  the  I.  W.  W.  its  mili- 
tants, all  become  ardent  dual  unionists,  declared  war  to  the  knife 
against  it.  The  organization  which  had  previously  absorbed  so  much 
of  their  unselfish  devotion  was  thereafter  the  object  of  their  bitterest 
attacks.  Once  the  very  backbone  of  the  W.  F.  of  M.,  the  militants 
now  became  its  deadliest  foes.  Under  these  circumstances  it  was  not 
long  until  the  degeneration  set  in  which  has  reduced  the  once  splen- 
did Western  Federation  of  Miners  to  its  present  lowly   status. 

Among  others,  the  writer  was  one  who  pointed  out  the  folly  of 
rebels  destroying  an  industrial  union  like  the  W.  F.  of  M.,  simply 
because  it  had  withdrawn  from  the  I.  W.  W.,  and  who  likewise  urged 
that  a  campaign  be  started  to  take  control  of  the  union  again.  But 
the  answer  always  given  was  that  the  Moyer  machine,  especially  be- 
cause it  controlled  the  big  Butte  local  union,  was  unshakably  in- 
trenched. And  when  it  was  proposed  to  capture  the  Butte  local  this 
was  declared  impossible.  But  the  fallacy  of  this  objection  was  made 
apparent  in  1914  when,  as  a  result  of  insupportable  grievances,  the 
rank  and  file  of  the  Butte  organization  rose  up,  drove  their  officials 
from  town  and  took  charge  of  the  situation.  This  put  Butte,  the  cita- 
del of  the  reaction,  squarely  in  thej  hands  of  the  militants.  Had  they 
but  stayed  in  the  W.  F.  of  M.  and  carried  on  a  campaign  in  the 
other  locals  the  whole  organization  would  have  been  theirs  for  the 
taking.  But  they  were  so  obsessed  with  the  dual  unionism  prevailing 
generally  among  rebels,  and  so  blinded  with  hatred  for  everything 
connected  with  the  A.  F.  of  L.,  that  they  seceded  at  once  and  formed 
a  new  union.  This  went  to  smash,  as  such  organizations  almost  al- 
ways do.  The  only  practical  effect  of  the  whole  affair  was  to  deal  a 
death  blow  to  W.  F.  of  M.,  already  weakened  and  poisoned  by  the 
desertion  of  its  former  militants. 

It  is  one  of  the  saddest  facts  of  American  labor  history  that  the 
Western  Federation  of  Miners  was  finally  destroyed  by  the  very  men 
who  originally  built  it  and  made  it  one  of  the  joys  of  the  working 
class.  What  the  Mine  Owners'  Association,  with  all  its  money  and 
power,   was    unable    to   accomplish,   the   militants,   obsessed   by   dual 


BANKRUPTCY  OF  THE  LABOR  MOVEMEN1  37 

unionism,  brought  about  with  little  or  no  difficulty.  Their  allegiance 
to  an  impractical  theory  has  broken  up  all  organization  among  the 
metal  miners.  And  the  ravages  that  were  made  upon  the  W.  F.  of  M. 
have  been  visited  to  a  greater  or  lesser  extent  upon  every  other  trade 
union  in  the  United  States,  for  all  of  them  have  had  to  suffer  the 
loss  of  their  most  active  workers  and  to  confront  as  bitter  enemies 
those  very  fighters  who  should  be  their  main  reliance. 

Downfall  of  tiik  Socialist  I'artv 

A  striking  example  of  the  destructive  influence  of  dual  unionism 
upon  other  working  class  organizations  besides  trade  unions,  was  the 
ruin  it  wrought  to  the  Socialist  Party.  For  many  years  the  S.  P.  was 
the  chief  vehicle  for  revolutionary  thought  in  this  country.  Gradually 
it  grew  and  expanded  until,  in  1912,  it  reached  a  total  of  118,000  mem- 
bers. It  appeared  to  be  flourishing  and  destined  for  a  vigorous  future. 
But  all  of  a  sudden  it  began  to  wither  and  disintegrate,  a  process 
which  went  on  until  now  the  S.  P.  has  less  than  10,000  members. 

This  quick  collapse  of  the  Socialist  Party  was  one  of  the  most 
remarkable  events  in  modern  labor  history.  It  seemed  that  the  very 
bottom  fell  out  of  the  movement.  The  first  immediate  cause  was  the 
passage,  at  the  1912  national  convention,  of  the  famous  Art.  2,  Sec.  6, 
of  the  party  constitution,  stringently  prohibiting  the  advocacy  of 
sabotage,  and  other  forms  of  direct  action.  This  measure,  amounting 
in  effect  to  an  anti-syndicalist  law,  greatly  antagonized  the  left-wing 
elements  and  drove  many  of  them  from  the  party.  The  next  blow 
came  when  the  United  States  entered  the  great  war.  The  party 
adopted  an  anti-war  resolution,  only  to  find  itself  confronted  with 
a  labor  movement  and  a  working  class  generally  stricken  by  war 
fever.  Result,  further  great  losses  in  membership  and  prestige.  The 
final  stroke  came  with  the  Communist  split  in  1919.  This  pulled 
away  at  least  half  of  the  remaining  party  membership,  and  the  rest, 
demoralized,  have  been  unable  to  recover  and  to  rehabilitate  the  or- 
ganization. Since  then  the  S.  P.  has  diminished  constantly  in  strength 
to  its  present  low  level. 

The  three  above-mentioned  causes  for  the  breakdown  of  the  So- 
cialist Party,  despite  their  importance,  were  only  of  a  surface  char- 
acter. The  real  reason  lies  deeper.  It  is  to  be  found  in  the  organ- 
ization's faulty  economic  policy,  in  the  dual  unionism  which  has  af- 
flicted it  ever  since  the  party's  foundation.  All  working  class  polit- 
ical  parties,  whether  Labor,   Socialist,  Communist,  or  whatnot,  must 


38  BANKRUPTCY   OF  THE  LABOR  MOVEMENT 

be  organized  with  the  trade  unions  as  their  foundation.  This  is  be- 
cause the  trade  unions  are  the  basic  institutions  of  the  working  class. 
The  fact  that  they  carry  on  the  everyday  struggle  of  the  workers 
for  better  conditions  gives  them  enormous  prestige  and  numerical 
and  financial  strength,  all  of  which  labor  parties  must  utilize  in  their 
political  work.  It  may  be  accepted  as  an  axiom  that  whoever  con- 
trols the  trade  unions  is  able  to  dictate  the  general  policies,  economic, 
political  and  otherwise,  of  the  whole  working  class.  All  over  the 
world  the  strength  of  the  workers'  political  parties  is  in  direct  ratio 
to  the  amount  of  control  they  exercise  over  the  mass  trade  unions. 
Such  a  thing  as  a  powerful  labor  party,  whether  conservative  or  rad- 
ical, without  strong  trade  union  backing,  is  impossible.  Therefore, 
one  of  the  very  first  tasks  of  every  working  class  political  organiza- 
tion must  be  to  establish  its  influence  in  the  trade  unions. 

The  Socialist  Party  has  never  understood  these  cardinal  facts. 
Its  working  principle,  real  enough  even  though  unexpressed,  has  al- 
ways been  a  presumption  that  it  could  secure  its  membership  and 
backing  from  the  citizenry  generally.  It  has  not  realized  that  all 
labor  parties  must  have  as  their  foundation  not  only  the  masses,  but 
the  masses  organized  in  the  trade  unions.  Because  of  the  tendency 
of  its  predecessor,  the  Socialist  Labor  Party,  to  split  away  the  rebels 
from  the  trade  unions,  the  thing  that  the  S.  P.  necessarily  had  to  do 
in  order  to  succeed  was  to  carry  on  an  intense  campaign  against  dual- 
ism and  to  intrench  its  active  workers  in*  the  strategic  positions  of 
the  labor  organizations,  where  they  could  educate  the  masses  and 
utilize  their  industrial,  financial,  and  other  strength  to  further  the 
cause  of  the  whole  Socialist  movement.  But  because  it  did  not  clearly 
understand  the  importance  of  the  unions  as  such  it  failed  to  map 
out  such  a  positive  industrial  program,  indispensable  to  its  life  and 
progress.  It  allowed  all  its  industrial  work  to  be  thwarted  by  a  dual 
unionism  which  infected  the  party  deeply  from  its  inception. 

Although  when  the  Socialist  Party  developed  as  a  split-off  from 
the  old  Socialist  Labor  Party  one  of  the  issues  it  dissented  upon 
was  the  latter's  policy  of  dual  unionism,  it  was  not  long  until  it,  too, 
was  in  the  grip  of  the  same  disease.  A  powerful  left-wing,  bitter 
haters  of  the  trade  unions  and  ardent  advocates  of  a  dual  labor  move- 
ment, rapidly  developed.  The  right-wing  favored  active  participation 
in  the  trade  unions,  chiefly  for  vote-catching  reasons,  while  the  left- 
wing  proposed  the  destruction  of  the  trade  unions.  The  party  as  a 
whole,    seeking    a    false    harmony,    straddled    this    vital    question.      Its 


BANKRUPTCY   OF  THE  LABOR  MOVEMENT  39 

general  attitude  was  to  favor  industrial  unionism,  but  not  to  tell  its 
members  how  to  achieve  this  form  of  organization,  whether  through 
the  development  of  the  old  unions  or  the  establishment  of  new  ones.  * 
As  an  organization  it  carried  out  no  serious  work  to  build  up  the 
necessary  .labor  union  foundation.  Each  wing  of  the  party  applied 
its  own  particular  industrial  policies.  For  some  years  the  right-wing 
attempted  to  capture  the  old  unions,  and  with  considerable  success 
in  the  Machinists',  Bakers',  Clothing  Workers',  Miners'  and  other 
unions,  but  on  the  whole,  the  left  wing,  by  a  bitter  warfare  against 
the  trade  unions,  sabotaged  such  work  most  effectively. 

Because  of  this  negative  attitude  the  Socialist  Party  never  won 
for  itself  the  support  of  the  labor  organizations,  without  which  it 
could  not  possibly  succeed.  Its  members  never  were  encouraged  to 
occupy  the  tremendously  important  strategic  posts,  such  as  executive 
officers,  editors,  etc.,  in  the  trade  unions,  which  could  have  been 
used  to  enormous  advantage  for  the  party.  On  the  contrary,  these 
posts  remained  uncontested  in  the  hands  of  the  conservatives,  who 
used  them  most  effectively  to  poison  the  masses  against  Socialism. 
When,  for  example,  the  party  adopted  the  anti-war  resolution  it 
would  have  been  comparatively  simple  to  secure  the  support,  or  at 
least  the  toleration,  of  the  working  class  for  that  measure,  had  the 
radicals  been  strategically  intrenched  in  the  unions.  But  with  the 
Gompers  crowd  in  complete  control  the  latter  were  able  to  sway  the 
whole  trade  union  movement,  and  with  it  the  working  class  in  gen- 
eral, against  the  Socialist  Party  and  its  anti-war  attitude.  In  this 
instance  the  party  reaped  the  whirlwind  that  it  had  been  sowing  for 
so  many  years  by  its  failure  to  conquer  the  trade  unions,  a  task  which 
it  could  have  easily  accomplished  had  it  but  freed  itself  from  dualism. 
In  Europe  the  Socialist  Parties  of  the  various  countries  have  suf- 
fered many  heavy  blows  since  the  beginning  of  the  world  war.  But 
they  have  stood  up  under  them  far  better  than  the  American  Social- 
ist Party.  This  is  because,  being  deeply  rooted  in  their  respective 
trade  unions,  there  is  some  structure  and  fiber  to  them.  Consider 
the  Social  Democratic  Party  of  Germany,  for  example.  That  organ- 
ization openly  betrayed  the  workers  all  through  the  war  and  the  rev- 


•A  classic  example  of  this  negative  policy  was  the  famous  industrial  resolution 
adopted  in  the  1912  S.  P.  convention.  This  resolution,  accepted  unanimously  by 
dual  unionists  and  trade  unionists  alike,  was  nothing  more  than  an  agreement  be- 
tween the  two  factions  that  the  party  in  general  should  actively  support  neither  the 
trade  unions  nor  the  dual  unions,  in  other  words,  that  it  should  have  no  industrial 
program     at  all. 


40  BANKRUPTCY  OF  THE  LABOR  MOVEMENT 

olutionary  period.  It  forfeited  its  right  to  represent  the  working 
class.  In  consequence  it  was  subjected  to  several  great  splits  and 
innumerable  desperate  assaults  from  without  by  the  left-wing  ele- 
ments. But  it  has  maintained  itself  with  a  vigor  not  even  remotely 
shown  by  the  Socialist  Party  in  this  country.  The  explanation  for 
this  was  its  firm  control  over  the  German  trade  union  movement. 
Having  in  its  hands  practically  all  the  executive  positions  of  the 
unions,  it  was  able  to  control  the  masses  even  under  the  most  trying 
circumstances.  Had  the  left-wingers  been  able  to  break  this  trade 
union  control,  the  S.  D.  P.  would  have  collapsed  even  as  our  Socialist 
Party  did.  The  degree  of  success  of  the  German  Communist  Party 
in  its  present  struggle  against  the  Social  Democratic  Party  is  in  direct 
relation  to  its  ability  to  win  the  trade  unions  away  from  S.  D.  P. 
domination. 

The  Socialist  Party  in  this  country  collapsed  because  it  was  built 
upon  talk,  instead  of  upon  the  solid  foundation  of  the  trade  union 
movement.  Because  it  did  not  have  the  labor  unions  behind  it  the 
organization  had  no  real  stability.  Hence,  when  it  was  put  to  the 
test,  as  noted  above,  in  1912,  1917,  and  1919,  it  went  to  pieces.  Dual 
unionism  kept  the  Socialist  militants  out  of  the  organized  masses  and 
thus  directly  prevented  the  winning  of  the  working  class  to  the  be- 
ginnings of  a  revolutionary  program.  Moreover,  it  made  of  the  S.  P. 
itself  a  formless,  spineless  movement,  which  was  shattered  at  the  first 
real  shock.     Dual  unionism  ruined  the  Socialist  Party. 

Further  illustrations  might  be  cited  almost  indefinitely  to  show 
the  baneful  effects  of  dual  unionism  upon  various  working  class  or- 
ganizations. By  pulling  the  militants  out  of  the  trade  unions  and 
wasting  their  energies  on  futile  Utopian  separatist  organizations,  dual 
unionism  has  robbed  the  whole  working  class  of  progressive  leader- 
ship. It  has  thrown  the  great  labor  unions  almost  entirely  into  the 
hands  of  a  corrupt  and  ignorant  bureaucracy,  which  has  choked  out 
their  every  manifestation  of  real  progress.  And  in  stultifying  and 
ruining  the  trade  unions,  dual  unionism  condemned  to  sterility  every 
branch  of  the  entire  labor  movement,  industrial,  political,  and  other- 
wise; for  if  the  workers  in  general  have  not  been  educated  to  an 
understanding  of  capitalism  and  the  class  struggle,  if  they  have  not 
developed  a  revolutionary  ideal,  if  they  have  not  yet  organized  polit- 
ically on  class  lines,  if  they  have  not  yet  produced  a  powerful  co- 
operative   movement — in    every   instance    the    cause   may   be    directly 


BANKRUPTCY  OF  THE  LABOR  MOVEMENT  41 

traced  to  the  paralyzing  influence  of  the  reactionary  trade  union 
bureaucracy,  which  dual  unionism  intrenched  in  power.  The  persist- 
ence, for  a  generation,  of  the  fatal  dual  union  policy  is  the  true  ex- 
planation of  the  paradoxical  and  deplorable  situation  of  the  United 
States,  the  most  advanced  capitalist  country  in  the  world,  having  the 
most  backward  labor  movement. 


42  BANKRUPTCY   OF  THE  LABOR  MOVEMENT 


CHAPTER  IV. 

New  Realism  vs.  Old  Utopianism 

But  the  American  labor  movement  is  at  last  freeing  itself  from  the 
dual  union  tendency  which  has  sucked  away  its  life  blood  for  so  many 
years.  During  the  past  18  months  whole  sections  of  the  militants 
have  undergone  an  intellectual  revolution,  repudiating  their  historic 
policy  of  building  independent  idealistic  labor  organizations,  and  turn- 
ing with  remarkable  rapidity  and  unanimity  to  the  work  of  revamping 
and  revolutionizing  the  old  trade  unions.  Practically  every  branch 
of  the  radical  and  progressive  movements  has  been  effected  by  this 
unprecedented  tactical  about-face.  The  Communist  groups,  viz.: 
Communist  Party,  Workers'  Party,  and  Proletarian  Party,  have  been 
particularly  influenced.  Made  up  of  elements  to  whom  dual  union- 
ism was  almost  a  religion  for  many  years,  they  have  now  turned 
entirely  against  that  policy  and  are  working  diligently  within  the 
old  unions  to  revive  and  re-invigorate  them.  Quite  evidently  those 
parties  are  determined  not  to  make  the  fatal  mistake,  which  ruined 
the  Socialist  Party,  of  failing  to  establish  their  militants  in  the  stra- 
tegic positions  in  the  organized  masses.  The  Farmer-Labor  Party 
militants,  always  active  in  the  unions,  have  had  their  work  clarified 
and  intensified.  The  Socialist  Party,  the  I.  W.  W.,  the  O.  B.  U.,  and  the 
various  single  industry  dual  unions  have  also  been  greatly  touched  by 
the  new  viewpoint.  Large  numbers  of  the  latters'  most  active  spirits 
have  come  out  openly  for  consolidation  with  the  trade  unions.  It  is 
the  most  complete  change  of  tactics  that  has  ever  taken  place  in  any 
country  in  the  world  in  so  short  a  time.  Dual  unionism  has  been  dealt 
a  death  blow. 

The  Cause  of  the  Rennaissance 

The  new  movement  is  crystallizing  in  the  Trade  Union  Educa- 
tional League;  but  before  describing  this  organization  it  will  be  well 
for  us  to  consider  the  origin  of  the  profound  and  remarkable  tactical 
reversal  and  the  differences  between  the  old  Utopian  dual  unionism 
and  the  new  realistic  industrial  program: 

The  repudiation  of  dual  unionism  in  the  United  States  and  Can- 
ada was  precipitated  as  a  result  of  the  Russian  revolution.  When  the 
Communists  of  the  world,  shortly  after  the  revolution,  organized  their 


BANKRUPTCY   OF  THE  LABOR  MOVEMENT  43 

political  party,  the  Third  International,  one  of  the  first  great  organ- 
izational problems  to  confront  them  was  that  of  the  trade  unions.  In 
order  to  succeed  in  its  immense  task  of  overthrowing  capitalism  gen- 
erally, the  new  International  was  compelled  to  have  the  backing  of 
the  masses. organized  industrially.  But  the  difficulty  was  how  to  se- 
cure this  support.  Everywhere  the  trade  unions  were  in  the  hands 
of  reactionary  leaders,  and  the  question  was  whether  the  Commun- 
ists should  stay  in  the  old  unions  and  launch  a  bitter  struggle  to 
control  them,  or  withdraw  from  them,  smash  them  up,  and  start  dual 
labor  movements  in  the  various  countries. 

For  a  time  the  dualistic  conception  prevailed,  particularly  in  the 
programs  for  Germany  and  the  United  States.  But  the  keen  Russian 
leaders  at  the  head  of  the  Third  International  were  quick  to  perceive 
the  folly  of  such  a  course.  Zinoviev,  Radek,  and  others  began  to 
combat  the  separatist  tendency  and  to  urge  penetration  of  the  trade 
unions.  Lenin  himself  was  especially  militant  in  this  respect.  In  his 
famous  booklet.  The  Infantile  Sickness  of  'Leftism'  in  Communism, 
he  says  : 

But  the  German  'Left'  Communists  commit  the  same  stupid- 
ity when,  because  of  the  reactionary  and  counter-revolutionary 
heads  of  the  trades  unions,  they,  through  some  inexplicable  mental 
process,  jump  to  the  conclusion  that  it  is  necessary  to  quit  these 
organizations  altogether!  To  refuse  to  work  in  them!  To  in- 
vent new  workingmen's  unions !  This  is  an  unpardonable  blunder 
which  results  in  the  Communists  rendering  the  greatest  service  to 
the  bourgeoisie  ...  A  greater  lack  of  sense  and  more  harm 
to  the  revolution  than  this  attitude  of  the  'Left'  Communists  can- 
not be  imagined  .  .  .  There  is  no  doubt  that  Messrs.  Gompers, 
Henderson,  Jouhaux,  Legien,  etc.,  are  very  grateful  to  such  'Left' 
revolutionaries  who,  like  the  German  opposition-in-principle  ele- 
ments, or  as  so  many  among  the  American  revolutionaries  in  the 
Industrial  Workers  of  the  World,  preach  the  necessity  of  quit- 
ting reactionary  trade  unions  and  refusing  to  work  in  them. 

Losovsky,  head  of  the  Red  International  of  Labor  Unions  and 
also  of  the  General  Council  of  the  All-Russian  Trade  Unions,  was 
another  who  inveighed  heavily  against  dual  unionism.  In  his  pamphlet. 
The  International  Council  of  Trade  and  Industrial  Unions,  and  speak- 
ing of  the  formation  of  that  body,  forerunner  of  the  present  Red 
International  of  Labor  Unions,  he  says  : 

All  this  evidence  of  the  invincibility  of  the  trade  union  bur- 
eaucracy (advanced  by  the  I.  W.  W.  dualists)  created  a  curious 
impression.     On  the  one  hand   these  comrades  were  preparing  to 


44  BANKRUPTCY  OF  THE  LABOR  MOVEMENT 

bring  about  a  social  revolution  in  their  country — and  on  the  other 
hand  they  speak  of  Gompers  with  such  holy  horror  as  if  to  drive 
Gompers  and   the   other   traitors    out  of   the   trade   unions   was  a 
much  more  difficult  task  than  overthrowing  the  mighty  capitalist 
class  of  America     ...     To  leave  the  trade  unions  and  to  set  up 
small  independent  unions  is  an  evidence  of  weakness,  it  is  a  policy 
of  despair  and,  more  than  that,  it  shows  lack  of  faith  in  the  work- 
ing class     .     .    .     The  motto  put  forth  by  the  Communist  Inter- 
national,  and  which   is   our  motto  also,   is :   'Not  the  destruction,  but 
the  conquest  of  the   trade   unions.' 
At  the  2nd  congress  of  the  Third  International,  held  in  Moscow 
in   1920,  heavy  blows  were  dealt  the  dual   unionists  by  the   realistic 
Russian  leaders.     Radek  in  particular  waged  war  against  them.     He 
tried,   but   without   much   success,   to   have   the  American   delegation 
adopt  a  trade  union  policy.    The  congress  finally  condemned  dualism 
in  principle.     But  a  definite  stand  was  not  taken  on  the  matter  until 
the  congress  of  1921.     In  the  year   that   had  passed  the   problem  of 
dual   unionism   had   become   a    burning   issue   in   many    countries.     It 
had  to  be  settled,  and  the  congress  handled  it  without  gloves.    As  a 
result  the  dualists  were  overwhelmingly  defeated  and  the  tactics  of 
participation  in  the  trade  unions  was  endorsed  and  adopted.     In  the 
trade  union   theses  outlining  the  general  policy  of  the  Third  Inter- 
national it  says : 

During  the  next  epoch  the  principal  task  of  all  Communists 
will  be  to  concentrate  their  energy  and  perseverance  on  winning 
over  to  their  side  the  majority  of  workers  in  all  labor  unions. 
They  must  not  be  discouraged  by  the  present  reactionary  ten- 
dency of  the  trade  unions,  but  take  active  part  in  the  struggles  of 
the  unions  and  win  them  over  to  the  cause  of  Communism  in 
spite  of  all  resistance. 

Dealing  directly  with  the  industrial  program  to  be  applied  in 
America,  the  theses  say: 

Communists  must  on  no  account  leave  the  ranks  of  the  re- 
actionary American  Federation  of  Labor.  On  the  contrary,  they 
should  get  into  the  old  trade  unions  in  order  to  revolutionize 
them. 

Following  closely  after  the  3rd  congress  of  the  Third  International 
came  the  1st  congress  of  the  Red  International  of  Labor  Unions.  In 
that  body  also  the  advocates  of  breaking  up  the  old  unions  and 
starting  the  labor  movement  all  over  again  were  routed  completely. 
The  general  theses  on  the  subject  say: 


BANKRUPTCY  OF  THE  LABOR  MOVEMENT  45 

The  task  of  the  revolutionary  elements  in  the  trade  unions 
does  not  consist  in  wresting  from  the  unions  the  best  and  most 
class  conscious  workers  in  order  to  create  small  independent  or- 
ganizations. Their  task  should  be  to  revolutionize  the  unions,  to 
transform  them  into  a  weapon  of  social  revolution  by  means  of 
the  everyday  struggle  in  favor  of  all  the  revolutionary  demands 
put  forth  by  the  workers  within  the  old  trade  unions  ...  To 
conquer  the  unions  means  to  conquer  the  masses,  and  these  can 
only  be  conquered  by  a  systematic  campaign  of  work,  setting 
against  the  policy  of  class  collaboration  that  of  our  steady  line 
of  revolutionary  action.  The  slogan,  "Out  of  the  Trade  Unions" 
prevents  us  from  conquering  the  masses  for  our  cause  and  re- 
tards the  advance  of  the  social  revolution. 

The  R.  I.  L.  U.  program  for  America  says : 
The  question  of  creating  revolutionary  cells  and  groups  within 
the  American  Federation  of  Labor  and  the  independent  unions  is 
of  vital  importance.     There  is  no  other  way  by  which  one  could 
gain   the   working   mass    in   America,   than    to    lead    a    systematic 
struggle  in  the  trade  unions. 
This  categoric  condemnation  of  dual  unionism  by  both  branches 
of  the  Communist  International,  political   and  industrial,   produced  a 
profound  effect  in  America.    The  left-wing  elements  who  for  so  many 
years  had  accepted  industrial  dualism  as  a  self-evident   necessity,  in 
fact,  almost  as  a  religion,  were  literally  shocked  into  a   re-valuation 
of  it.    Their  eyes  were  opened  all  of  a  sudden  to  its  disastrous  conse- 
quences.   Then  they  repudiated  it  and  began  their  present  great  drive 
back  to  the  old  trade  unions.    To  the  Third  International,  and  partic- 
ularly to  the  Russians  at  the  head  of  it,  is  due  the  credit  for  breaking 
the  deadly  grip  of  dual  unionism  in  the  American  labor  movement. 

Old  Viewpoints  Discarded 

With  the  repudiation  of  dual  unionism,  the  militants  have  also 
cast  aside  many  of  the  theories  they  once  held  regarding  the  unions 
and  have  adopted  new  and  different  conceptions.  In  the  past,  blinded 
by  the  glittering  dual  union  Utopia  and  embittered  by  organization 
chauvinism,  they  developed  many  bizarre  notions  about  the  trade 
unions  in  order  to  justify  the  dualist  policy.  In  the  iight  of  recent 
events  these  theories  seem  ridiculous.  The  real  meaning  of  the  labor 
movement  escaped  the  dual  unionists  altogether.  Besides  ascribing 
the  most  extravagant  virtues  to  their  Utopian  dual  organizations,  they 
lashed  the  old  trade  unions  with  criticisms  which,  for  wildness  and 
vitriolic   sharpness,  have   never   been   equalled   in    any   other   country. 


46  BANKRUPTCY  OF  THE  LABOR  MOVEMENT 

They  looked  upon  the  trade  unions  as  a  sort  of  conspiracy  carried 
out  by  the  employers  against  the  working  class,*  as  capitalistic  or- 
ganizations which,  yielding  no  benefits  to  the  workers  now  and  utterly 
incapable  of  evolving  into  genuine  labor  unions,  had  to  be  ruthlessly 
destroyed.  The  following  list  of  miscellaneous  quotations  from  well- 
known  militants  illustrates  typically  the  long  prevailing  intense  hatred 
and  contempt  for  the  trade  unions: 

The  American  Federation  of  Labor  is  not  now  and  never  can 
become  a  labor  movement.  ** 

The  United  Mine  Workers  is  a  capitalist  organization  just  as 
much  as  the  standing  army  of  the  United  States,  t 

The  28,000  local  unions  of  the  A.  F.  of  L.  are  28,000  agencies 
of  the  capitalist  class,  tt 

When  it  comes  to  strikebreaking  the  A.  F.  of  L.  has  Farley 
beaten  1,000  ways.  X 


'Dual  unionists  commonly  make  the  charge  that  the  A.  F.  of  L.,  backed  by  capi- 
talist money,  was  organized  to  destroy  the  Knights  of  Labor,  and  then,  with  charac- 
teristic inconsistency,  they  claim  the  success  of  the  A.  F.  of  L.  as  proving  the 
feasibility  of  the  dual  union  program.  But  the  fact  is  the  A.  F.  of  L.  was  not  or- 
ganized as  a  rival  organization  to  the  K.  of  L.  When  the  A.  F.  of  L.  was  founded 
in  1881  it  had  40,000  members  (out  of  a  total  of  200,000  trade  unionists  in  the 
whole  country)  whereas  the  K.  of  L.  at  that  period  had  only  20,000  members.  Only 
for  a  couple  of  years,  when  it  was  at  its  peak,  did  the  K.  of  L.  exceed  the  trade 
unions  in  numerical  strength.  Generally  speaking  the  trade  unions  represented  the 
skilled  workers,  and  the  K.  of  L.  the  semi-skilled  and,  unskilled.  At  first  no  rivalry 
existed  between  the  two  movements.  They  maintained  friendly  relations  until  1884, 
when  the  K.  of  L.  began  its  rapid  growth  and  hectic  career.  Needing  the  skilled 
workers  in  its  bitter  battles  against  the  employers,  the  K.  of  L.  embarked  upon  a 
militant  campaign  to  absorb  the  trade  unions.  This  started  the  fight.  John  R.  Com- 
mons, iri  his  History  of  Labor  in  the  United  States,  P.  386-411,  says:  "The  conflict 
was  held  in  abeyance  during  the  early  eighties.  The  trade  unions  were  by  far  the 
strongest  organisations  in  the  field  (Italics  ours)  and  they  scented  no  particular 
danger  when  here  and  there  the  Knights  formed  an  assembly  either  contiguous  to 
the  sphere  of  a  trade  union  or  even  encroaching  upon  it."  But  with  the  great 
expansion  of  the  Knights,  beginning  about  1884,  the  jurisdictional  war  began  in 
earnest.  "In  nearly  every  instance  the  Knights  were  the  aggressors."  Finally,  at 
their  General  Assembly  in  1886,  the  Knights  declared  war  against  the  trade  unions. 
This  aroused  the  latter  to  self-defense.  They  opened  peace  negotiations  with  the 
K.  of  L.,  but  as  these  failed,  "Thereupon  the  Federation  declared  war  upon  the 
Knights  and  announced  the  decision  to  carry  hostilities  into  the  enemy's  territory." 
In  view  of  these,  facts  it  is  idle  to  assert  that  the  A.  F.  of  L.  was  a  capitalist  con- 
spiracy, or  even  a  dual   union,   against  the  Knights  of  Labor. 

**Vincent  St.  John,  in  speeches. 

tjames  P.  Thompson,  Everett,  Wash,  1911  convention  of  International  Union 
of  shingle   Weavers. 

ttWm.   D.   Haywood,  in  speeches. 

t James   P.   Thompson,   Everett,   Wash.,    1911. 


BANKRUPTCY  OF  THE  LABOR  MOVEMENT  47 

The  American  Federation  of  Labor  is  neither  American,  nor  a 
federation,  nor  of  labor.  * 

There  is  no  case  in  the  history  of  bygone  organization  in  the 
labor  movement  where  existing  organizations  have  changed  to 
meet  new  conditions.  •• 

The  first  duty  of  every  revolutionist  is  to  destroy  the  A.  F. 
of  L.     There  can  be  no  revolutionary  organization   so   long  as  it 
exists.t 

We  simply  have  to  go  at  them  (the  trade  unions)   and  smash 
them  from  top  to  bottom,  tt 
I  would  cut  off  my  right  arm  rather  than  join  the  A.  F.  of  L.  t 

We  don't  want  to  save  the  Federation  any  more  than  to  save 
the  nation  ;  we  aim  at  destroying  it.tt 

The  A.  F.  of  L.  never  won  a  strike,  the  I.  W.  W.  never  lost 
one.  § 

If  any  officer  of  a  pure  and  simple  trade  or  labor  organization 
applies  for  membership  in  the  Socialist  Labor  Party  he  shall  be 
rejected.  §§ 

It  has  been  said  that  this  convention  was  to  form  an  organiza- 
tion rival  to  the  A.  F.  of  L.  This  is  a  mistake.  We  are  here  for 
the   purpose  of   forming  a   labor  organization.  IF 

This  wornout  system  (trade  unionism)  offers  no  promise  of 
improvement  and  adaptation.  There  is  no  silver  lining  to  the 
clouds  of  darkness  and  despair  settling  down  upon  the  world  of 
labor.  IH 

It  might  as  well  be  said  if  the  fine  energy   exhibited  by  the 
I.  W.  W.  were  put  into  the  Catholic  Church  (instead  of  the  trade 
unions)    that    the    result    would*  be    the    workers'    control    of    in- 
dustry, fl 
Through    the    foregoing   intensely    hostile   criticisms,   which   truly 
reflect  the  viewpoint  held  generally  by  rebels  for  many  years  regard- 


*Danitl    DeLeon,    1905    I.    VV.    W.   convention. 

••Vincent   St.  John,    Why   the   A.   F.   of  L.    Cannot   Become   an   Industrial    Union. 

tjoseph    J.    Ettor,   Samuel    Gompers  Smascherato. 

ttTom   Hickey,   cited   by   Brissenden,   History   of   the   I.    W.    W.,   P.    49. 

JYVm.    D.   Haywood. 

ttjoseph   J.    Ettor,  cited   by    Brissenden,    History   of  the  I.    W.    W.,    P.   303. 

SJames  P.   Thompson,   in  speeches. 

|§Socialist   Labor   Party   convention,    1900. 

HWm.    D.    Haywood,    1905    I.    W.    W.   convention. 

^Manifesto   °f   conference  forming  I.   W.   W.,    1905. 

ifVVm.    D.    Haywood,    International   Socialist    Rcziew,    March,    1914. 


48  BANKRUPTCY  OF  THE  LABOR  MOVEMENT 

ing  the  trade  unions,  run  the  conceptions  that  the  trade  unions  are 
essentially  capitalistic  in  nature,  and  that  they  cannot  develop  into 
bona  fide  revolutionary  organizations.  But  the  militants  of  today, 
since  their  great  change  in  opinion  and  tactics,  no  longer  accept  these 
far-fetched  and  unjustifiable  conclusions.  They  see  the  trade  unions 
for  what  they  really  are,  primitive  but  genuine  attempts  of  an  ignor- 
ant working  class  to  organize  and  fight  the  exploiters  that  are  harass- 
ing it.  If  the  organizations  are  afflicted  by  all  sorts  of  capitalist  ideas 
and  notions  it  is  because  the  workers  as  a  whole  suffer  from  them 
also.  Timid  and  muddled  trade  unions  are  a  logical  throwoff  of  a 
timid  and  muddled  working  class.  But  as  the  workers  gradually  be- 
come educated,  and  especially  as  a  more  militant  and  intelligent  ele- 
ment achieves  leadership  among  them,  the  trade  unions  will  constantly 
take  on  higher  forms  and  a  more  advanced  psychology,  until  finally 
they  develop  into  scientifically  constructed,  class  conscious  weapons 
in  the  revolutionary  struggle. 

In  the  era  just  past  the  militants  made  much  of  the  fact  that  the 
trade  unions  demanded  only  "a  fair  day's  pay  for  a  fair  day's  work," 
claiming  this  slogan  showed  conclusively  that  they  were  wedded  to 
the  perpetuation  of  the  capitalist  system.  It  was  one  of  the  prime 
reasons  why  the  Socialists  did  not  invade  the  A.  F.  of  L.,  depose  the 
Gompers  regime,  and  change  the  whole  face  of  the  labor  movement 
twenty  years  ago.  But  the  militants  are  no  longer  deceived  by  this 
and  similar  slogans.  They  see  that  little  or  no  attention  is  paid  to 
such  doctrines  in  real  practice.  The  unions  know  no  such  thing  as 
"a  fair  day's  pay  for  a  fair  day's  work."  Consciously  or  unconsciously, 
they  have  used  that  device  as  camouflage  to  conceal  from  the  capital- 
ist enemy  the  aggressive  character  of  their  movement.  In  reality  there 
is  no  set  limit  to  their  demands.  Notwithstanding  the  hamstringing 
effects  of  their  conservative  bureaucracy,  and  of  their  own  ignorance 
and  weak  organization,  the  unions  constantly  improve  working  con- 
ditions and  screw  up  wages  as  much  as  they  can.  Their  unwavering 
method  is  to  sieze  from  the  exploiter  all  they  have  the  understanding 
and  power  to  take.  This  is  a  distinctly  revolutionary  proceeding.  And 
the  modern  militant  knows  that,  so  far  as  the  industrial  part  of  the 
class  struggle  is  concerned,  his  task  is  to  broaden,  deepen,  clarify,  and 
hasten  this  natural  revolutionary  trade  union  tendency  until  it  culmi- 
nates in  the  final  abolition  of  capitalism. 


BANKRUPTCY  OF  THE  LABOR  MOVEMENT  49 

Industrial  Unionism  a  Growth 

Especially  the  new  movement,  as  represented  by  the  Trade  Union 
Educational  League,  repudiates  the  conception,  long  a  dogma  of  the 
dual  unionists,  that  the  trade  unions  are  anchored  to  the  principle 
of  craft  unionism  and  cannot  develop  into  industrial  organizations.  As 
against  the  old  idea  that  the  inevitable  industrial  unions  have  to  be 
created  out  of  the  whole  cloth,  by  fiat  as  it  were,  the  new  movement 
holds  that  they  are  coming  as  a  result  of  an  evolutionary  process,  by 
a  constant  building-up,  re-organization,  and  consolidation  of  the  prim- 
itive craft  unions.  This  conception  is  borne  out  by  world-wide  labor 
history. 

In  the  development  of  industrial  unionism  out  of  the  original  un- 
organized condition  of  the  working  class  the  labor  movement  passes 
through  three  distinct  phases,  which  may  be  roughly  designated  as 
isolation,  federation,  and  amalgamation.  In  the  beginning  the  workers 
almost  always  organize  by  crafts.  These  primitive  unions,  knowing 
little  or  nothing  of  broad  class  interests,  fight  along  in  a  desultory 
battle,  each  one  for  itself.  This  is  the  period  of  isolation,  or  pure  and 
simple  craft  unionism.  But  after  a  greater  or  lesser  period  it  finally 
ends:  the  crafts  in  the  various  industries,  seeing  that  the  employers 
play  their  organizations  against  each  other  and  thus  defeat  all  of 
them,  learn  something  of  their  common  interests  and  set  up  alliances 
among  themselves  along  the  lines  of  their  respective  industries.  This 
brings  them  into  the  second,  or  federation,  stage  of  development. 
Their  evolution  goes  right  on  :  for  the  same  forces  that  necessitated 
the  craft  unions  federating  eventually  compel  them  to  consolidate 
these  federations  into  actual  industrial  unions.  Thus  they  arrive  at 
the  final  stage  of  amalgamation.  The  resultant  industrial  unions  then 
pass  through  a  similar  process  of  integration.  First  they  fight  alone, 
then  they  strike  up  federations  with  allied  industries,  and  finally  they 
amalgamate  with  them.  Industrial  unionism  comes,  not  as  a  new 
system  suddenly  applied  to  the  labor  movement,  but  as  the  culmina- 
tion of  a  long  and  elaborate  evolution  from  the  simple  craft  unions 
to  the  complex  organizations  necessary  for  the  modern  struggle. 

Practically  all  the  great  industrial  unions  in  the  world  have  been 
built  by  this  evolutionary  process.  In  England,  the  National  Union 
of  Railwaymen,  the  Amalgamated  Engineering  Union,  the  Miners' 
Federation,  and  the  Transport  and  General  Workers'  Union  are 
amalgamations  of  many  craft  and  district   unions.     In   Germany,  the 


50  BANKRUPTCY  OF  THE  LABOR  MOVEMENT 

Metal  Workers'  Union,  the  Building  Workers'  Federation,  etc.,  etc., 
were  built  up  the  same  way  from  original  craft  unions.  These  big 
organizations,  and  dozens  more  in  other  countries,  have  all  passed 
through  the  three  stages  of  isolation,  federation,  and  amalgamation. 
That  is  the  normal  mode  of  labor  union  progress.  And  despite  the 
efforts  of  the  dualists  to  prove  them  static  and  unchangeable,  Amer- 
ican trade  unions  are  travelling  the  same  evolutionary  route  that  the 
foreign  unions  have  taken,  although  very  much  slower  and  more  la- 
boriously. At  present  they  are  quite  generally  in  the  federation  stage 
of  development.  That  is  the  meaning  of  the  many  alliances  among 
them — the  railroad  federations,  the  printing,  metal,  building,  and  other 
trades  councils — that  exist  in  the  various  industries.  The  task  of  the 
militants  is  to  develop  the  trade  unions  into  the  next  stage,  amalgama- 
tion ;  to  speed  on  the  present  natural  evolution  until  these  bodies  cul- 
minate in  industrial  unions. 

The  Militants  in  the  Masses 

The  new  movement  now  crystallizing  in  the  Trade  Union  Educa- 
tional League  also  differs  widely  in  tactical  conceptions  from  those 
of  the  dualists.  The  essence  of  the  program  of  the  latter  was  to  set 
up  labor  unions  upon  the  basis  of  their  several  political  and  industrial 
theories  and  then  to  try  to  educate  a  backward  working  class  into 
joining  them.  This  was  a  violation  of  the  first  principle  of  labor 
unionism.  The  workers  organize  in  the  industrial  field  not  because 
they  hold  certain  elaborate  social  beliefs  jointly,  but  because  through 
united  action  they  can  protect  their  common  economic  interests.  La- 
bor unions  are  built  upon  the  solid  rock  of  the  material  welfare  cf 
the  workers,  not  upon  their  acceptance  of  stated  political  opinions. 
In  the  very  nature  of  things  labor  unions  at  present  must  consist  of 
the  many  sects  and  factions  that  go  to  make  up  the  working  class, 
Republicans,  Democrats,  Socialists,  Communists,  Anarchists,  Syndical- 
ists, Catholics,  Protestants,  etc.,  etc.  The  natural  result  of  the  dual- 
ists' attempt  to  organize  labor  unions  around  their  theories  was  a 
whole  crop  of  new  labor  movements.  As  fast  as  new  conceptions, 
political  and  industrial,  developed,  their  proponents  organized  separate 
labor  unions  to  give  expression  to  them.  In  some  industries  there 
were  as  many  as  five  of  these  dual  movements,  each  representing  a 
different  tendency  and  each  engaged  in  the  hopeless  task  of  con- 
verting the  masses  to  its  particular  point  of  view.  Dual  union- 
ism,  with    is     program     of    labor    organization    along    the     lines    of 


BANKRUPTCY  OF  THE  LABOR  MOVEMENT  51 

fine-spun  theory,  not  only  devitalized  the  trade  unions  by  robbing 
them  of  their  best  blood,  but  it  also  degenerated  the  revolutionary 
and  progressive  movement  into  a  series  of  detached  sects,  out  of  touch 
with  the  masses  and  the  real  struggle  and  running  off  to  all  sorts  of 
wild  theories  and  impractical  programs. 

But  the  militants  in  the  Trade  Union  Educational  League  rigidly 
eschew  this  sectarian  policy.  Their  program  is  the  very  reverse,  to 
keep  the  militants  in  the  organized  masses  at  all  costs.  Instead  of 
setting  up  intellectual  and  organizational  barriers  and  then  coaxing 
the  worker  to  break  through  them,  they  carry  their  propaganda  right 
into  the  very  heart  of  the  workers'  organizations  and  struggles.  The 
Russian  revolution  has  taught  them  that  the  great  masses  will  prob- 
ably never  become  clear-headedly  revolutionary,  but  that  they  will 
follow  the  lead  of  an  organized  conscious  minority  that  does  know  the 
way.  The  League  militants  conceive  the  question  of  labor  organiza- 
tion to  be  largely  one  of  leadership,  and  they  aim  to  secure  the  back- 
ing of  the  mass  of  organized  workers  by  taking  the  lead  in  all  their 
battles,  by  showing  in  the  crucible  of  the  class  struggle  that  their 
theories,  tactics,  and  organization  forms  are  the  best  for  the  labor 
movement.  Thus  will  be  broken  the  grip  of  the  revolutionary  bur- 
eaucracy who  now  stultify  and  paralyse  the  labor  unions,  and  the  con- 
trol of  these  organizations  thereby  gradually  pass  into  the  hands  of 
the  militants  who  will  stimulate  and  develop  them. 

In  the  past  the  militants  have  voluntarily  isolated  themselves 
from  the  organized  masses,  which  was  very  convenient  indeed  for  the 
labor  bureaucrats.  But  now  these  active  spirits  fight  desperately 
against  such  isolation.  They  realize  fully  that  their  place  is  in  the 
big  trade  unions.  And  when  the  controlling  reactionaries,  who  in- 
stinctively know  that  the  rebels  are  dangerous  to  them  only  if  in  the 
unions,  expel  individuals  and  local  unions,  the  latter  must  fight  their 
way  back  in  again.  Such  a  policy  however,  does  not  mein  that  the  old 
organizations  must  be  maintained  at  any  price.  In  extreme  cases  se- 
cession movements  may  be  unavoidable  through  the  reactionaries'  re- 
fusing to  obey  the  mandates  of  the  rank  and  file.  But  when  such  splits 
occur  the  militants  must  have  so  maneuvrcd  as  to  keep  the  mass  of 
the  membership  on  their  side.  Otherwise  disaster  will  come  upon 
them  and  the  labor  movement.  The  winning  combination  for  the 
rebel  movement,  the  typical  situation  that  the  Trade  Union  Educa- 
tional League  is  trying  to  create  everywhere,  is  for  the  militants  to 
function  aggressively  as  a  highly-organized  minority  in  the  midst  of 


52  BANKRUPTCY  OF  THE  LABOR  MOVEMENT 

the  great  unconscious  trade  union  mass.  The  heart  of  the  League's 
tactical  program  is  that  under  no  circumstances  shall  the  militants 
allow  themselves  to  become  detached  from  the  unionized  section  of 
the  working  class.  "Keep  the  militants  in  the  organized  mass,"  is  the 
slogan  of  the  new  revolutionary  movement. 

The  Amalgamated  Clothing  Workers 

An  excellent  illustration  of  the  effectiveness  of  the  "keep  the  mil- 
itants in  the  organized  mass"  method  advocated  by  the  Trade  Union 
Educational  League  was  the  birth  of  the  Amalgamated  Clothing 
"Workers  of  America.  Characteristic  of  their  general  misinterpreta- 
tion of  labor  history  in  favor  of  their  policy,  the  dual  unionists  have 
cited  this  powerful  independent  union  time  and  again  as  the  one  con- 
vincing proof  of  the  correctness  of  the  dual  union  program,  and  few 
indeed  have  contradicted  them.  All  of  which  qualifies  the  Amalga- 
mated so  much  the  better  to  show  the  difference  in  principle  and  re- 
sults between  the  old  and  the  new  methods  of  the  militants. 

The  Amalgamated  Clothing  Workers  was  not  built  by  dual  union 
methods.  It  developed  out  of  the  work  of  an  organized  minority 
within  the  old  United  Garment  Workers.  The  traditional  way  of  dual 
unionism  and  the  very  essence  of  its  program,  is  for  the  handful  of 
militants  to  devise  ideal  unions,  set  them  up  in  competition  with  the 
old  trade  unions,  and  to  engage  with  the  latter  in  an  open  struggle 
for  control  of  the  industry,  a  process  which  almost  always  results  in 
simply  stripping  the  old  unions  of  their  militants  and  leaving  those 
organizations  in  the  hands  of  the  reactionaries.  But  nothing  like  that 
occurred  in  the  case  of  the  Amalgamated  Clothing  Workers.  The 
militants  in  the  men's  ready-made  clothing  industry  had  no  dual  un- 
ion. *  They  accepted  as  their  organization  the  United  Garment  Work- 
ers of  America,  and  they  planned  to  make  it  into  a  virile  fighting 
union  capable  of  playing  a  worthy  part  in  the  class  struggle.  To  this 
end  they  organized  themselves,  in  harmony  with  League  principles,  to 
defeat  the  controlling  reactionaries  and  to  make  their  own  policies 
prevail. 

The  struggle  between  the  progressives  and  the  reactionaries  in 
the  United  Garment  Workers  went  on  for  a  number  of  years.  The 
rebel   elements,   utilizing  every   mistake   or   crime   of   the  officialdom, 


*The  needle  trades  generally  have  been  unusually  free  from  dual  unionism,  a  fact 
which  no  doubt  has  had  a  great  deal  to  do  with  the  advanced  types  of  organization 
prevailing  in   that  industry. 


BANKRUPTCY  OF  THE  LABOR  MOVEMENT  53 

gradually  extended  their  organization  and  influence  with  the  rank  and 
file.  The  sell-out  by  Rickert  in  the  great  Chicago  strike  of  1910 
strengthened  their  grip.  Then  came  the  bitter  New  York  strike  of 
1913,  with  its  record  of  treason  by  the  old  officials.  This  was  the  final 
blow.  On  the  basis  of  the  resultant  discontent  the  militants,  now  or- 
ganized nationally  through  a  rank  and  file  committee  (exactly  the 
same  as  the  League  is  at  present  setting  up  in  the  various  industries) 
elected  an  overwhelming  majority  of  delegates  to  the  approaching 
1914  convention  in  Nashville. 

This  brought  the  situation  to  a  crisis.  The  militants  had  the  rank 
and  file  behind  them,  but  Rickert,  in  a  desperate  attempt  to  save 
himself,  ruled  out  enough  of  their  delegates  to  leave  him  in  control. 
At  this  all  the  rebel  delegates  withdrew  and  re-organized  themselves 
into  another  convention.  Then  they  gave  an  eloquent  proof  that  they 
were  not  dual  unionists.  Even  after  Rickert's  outrage  they  refused 
to  secede,  but  claimed  to  be  the  genuine  United  Garment  Workers. 
It  was  only  when  the  A.  F.  of  L.  convention,  shortly  afterward,  denied 
this  claim  and  recognized  Rickert  that  they  launched  out  as  an  inde- 
pendent union. 

To  call  such  a  proceeding  dual  unionism  is  nonsense.  It  had  ab- 
solutely nothing  in  common  with  the  customary  dual  union  policy  of 
sucking  the  militants  out  of  the  old  unions.  The  very  heart  of  the 
campaign  cited,  and  the  reason  it  succeeded,  was  that  it  kept  the  mili- 
tants in  the  organized  mass  and  united  them  there  so  that  they  could 
beat  the  old  machine.  The  split  at  Nashville  was  a  minor  phase.  No 
matter  whether  it  took  place  or  not,  the  militants  had  won  the  rank 
and  file.  Regardless  of  Rickert's  antics,  the  organized  men's  clothing 
workers  had  definitely  accepted  the  leadership  of  the  men  who  later 
made  their  organization  such  a  brilliant  success.  Instead  of  being  an 
endorsement  of  dual  unionism,  the  rise,  of  the  Amalgamated  Clothing 
Workers  is  a  striking  justification  of  the  "stay  with  the  organized 
masses"  policy  advocated  by  the  Trade  Union  Educational  League. 


54  BANKRUPTCY   OF  THE  LABOR  MOVEMENT 


* 


CHAPTER  V. 

The  Trade  Union  Educational  League 

The  new  movement  of  militants  working  within  the  trade  unions 
is  centering  around  the  Trade  Union  Educational  League.  This  body 
is  the  descendant  of  two  forerunners,  the  Syndicalist  League  of  North 
America  and  the  International  Trade  Union  Educational  League.  The 
first  of  these  was  organized  in  1912.  As  its  name  indicates  it  was  Syn- 
dicalist in  tendency,  and  it  was  largely  influenced  by  the  French  la- 
bor movement,  then  in  its  glory.  The  S.  L.  of  N.  A,  had  the  same 
general  working  principles  as  the  present  T.  U.  E.  L.  It  flatly  op- 
posed dual  organization  and  advocated  the  organization  of  revolu- 
tionary nuclei  in  the  mass  unions.  For  a  time  it  made  quite  a  stir, 
securing  a  grip  in  the  labor  movements  of  many  cities.  In  Kansas 
City  in  particular  the  Central  Labor  Council  fell  into  the  hands  of  the 
rebel  elements,  who  actually  drove  the  leading  labor  fakers  out  of 
the  city.  The  organization  had  four  journals :  The  Syndicalist  of  Chi- 
cago, The  Unionist  of  St.  Louis,  The  1  oiler  of  Kansas  City,  and  The 
International  of  San  Diego.  A  feature  of  the  movement  was  an  ex- 
tended trip  through  the  United  States  by  Tom  Mann,  who  endorsed 
its  program  wholeheartedly.  Another  was  an  attempt  of  the  Emma 
Goldman  Anarchist  group  of  New  York  to  steal  the  thunder  of  the 
movement  by  launching  a  national  Syndicalist  league  of  their  own. 
But  the  Syndicalist  League  of  North  America  was  born  before  its 
time.  The  rebel  elements  generally  were  still  too  much  infatuated 
with  dual  unionism  to  accept  its  program.  Particularly  was  this  true 
because  just  about  that  time  the  I.  W.  W.  made  a  great  show  of  vital- 
ity, carrying  on  big  strikes  in  Lawrence,  Akron,  Paterson,  Little  Falls, 
etc.,  etc.    After  about  two  years'  existence  the  S.  L.  of  N.  A.  died. 

The  next  effort  to  organize  the  radicals  within  the  mass  unions 
took  place  in  1916,  when  the  International  Trade  Union  Educational 
League  was  founded.  This  body  set  up  a  few  groups  here  and  there, 
but  it  found  a  poor  soil  to  work  in.  The  war  situation  was  at  hand 
and  the  rebels,  still  badly  afflicted  with  dualism,  would  have  nothing 
to  do  with  the  ultra-patriotic  trade  unions.  Hence  it  never  acquired 
even  as  much  vigor  and  influence  as  the  earlier  Syndicalist  League  of 
North  America.     It  expired  in  1917. 


BANKRUPTCY   OF  THE  1   \li()K  MOVEMENT  55 

The  present  Trade  Union  Educational  League  was  organized  in 
Chicago  in  November,  1920.  For  about  a  year  it  lingered  along  more 
dead  than  alive,  due  as  usual  to  the  dualistic  attitude  of  the  militants 
generally.  But  in  the  latter  part  of  1921,  after  the  Third  International 
and  the  Red  International  of  Labor  Unions  had  condemned  dual  un- 
ionism so  categorically  and  advocated  the  organization  of  nuclei  with- 
in the  mass  unions,  it  took  on  sudden  vigor  and  importance.  With 
the  hard  shell  of  dualism  broken,  the  militants,  particularly  those  in 
the  extreme  left  wing,  came  with  a  surprising  change  of  front  to  see 
in  it  exactly  the  type  of  organization  they  needed.  One  after  another, 
the  Communist  Party,  the  Workers'  Party,  the  Proletarian  Party,  and 
the  United  Toilers  went  on  record  officially  in  favor  of  its  general 
policy.  Hence  the  League  rapidly  extended  its  organization  and  sphere 
of  influence.  In  the  early  part  of  1922  it  put  on  a  drive,  sending  out 
an  elaborate  series  of  circular  letters  to  hundreds  of  militants  (later 
blasted  by  Mr.  Gompers  as  the  "1,000  secret  agents"  seeking  to  de- 
stroy American  civilization)  in  that  many  towns,  calling  upon  them 
to  organize  groups  of  rebel  unionists  in  their  respective  localities.  As 
a  result  branches  of  the  League  were  set  up  in  all  the  principal  un- 
ions and  industrial  centers  of  the  United  States  and  Canada.  In  March, 
1922,  The  Labor  Herald,  monthly  official  organ  of  the  League,  was 
launched. 

Program  ok  thk  League 

The  working  theory  of  the  Trade  Union  Educational  League  is 
the  establishment  of  a  left  block  of  all  the  revolutionary  and  pro- 
gressive elements  in  the  trade  unions,  as  against  the  autocratic  ma- 
chine of  the  reactionary  bureaucracy.  Thus,  so  that  these  various 
elements  of  the  different  political  persuasions  can  co-operate  together, 
the  policy  of  the  organization  must  be  essentially  industrial  in  char- 
acter. Except  for  condemning  the  fatal  Gompers  political  policy  and 
advocating  the  general  proposition  of  independent  working  class 
political  action,  the  League  leaves  political  questions  to  the  several 
parties.    Its  work  is  primarily  in  the  industrial  field. 

At  its  first  National  Conference,  held  in  Chicago,  August  26-27, 
1922,  the  League  laid  out  a  broad  revolutionary  industrial  policy,  upon 
the  basis  of  which  it  is  uniting  the  militants  and  carrying  on  its  edu- 
cational work  in  the  unions.  Of  this  program  the  principal  planks 
are:  (1)  abolition  of  capitalism  and  establishment  of  a  workers'  re- 
public, (2)  repudiation  of  the  policy  of  class  collaboration  and  adop- 


56  BANKRUPTCY  OF  THE  LABOR  MOVEMENT 

tion  of  the  principle  of  class  struggle,  (3)  affiliation  of  the  American 
labor  movement  to  the  Red  International  of  Labor  Unions,  (4)  whole- 
hearted support  of  the  Russian  revolution  as  "the  supreme  achieve- 
ment of  the  world's  working  class,"  (5)  industrial  unionism,  (6)  com- 
bating of  dual  unionism,  (7)  shop  delegate  system  in  the  unions,  (8) 
independent  working  class  political  action. 

In  a  statement  of  its  program  and  principles  issued  in  February, 
1922,  the  aims  of  the  League  are  stated  as  follows : 

The  Trade  Union  Educational  League  proposes  to  develop  the 
trade  unions  from  their  present  antiquated  and  stagnant  condition 
into  modern,  powerful  labor  organizations,  capable  of  waging  suc- 
cessful warfare  against  Capital.  To  this  end  it  is  working  to  re- 
vamp and  remodel  from  top  to  bottom  their  theories,  tactics, 
structure,  and  leadership.  Instead  of  advocating  the  prevailing 
shameful  and  demoralizing  nonsense  about  harmonizing  the  in- 
terests of  Capital  and  Labor,  it  is  firing  the  workers'  imagination 
and  releasing  their  wonderful  idealism  and  energy  by  propagating 
the  inspiring  goal  of  the  abolition  of  capitalism  and  the  establish- 
ment of  a  workers'  republic.  The  League  aggressively  favors  or- 
ganization by  industry  instead  of  by  craft.  Although  the  craft 
form  of  union  served  a  useful  purpose  in  the  early  days  of  capital- 
ism, it  is  now  entirely  out  of  date.  In  the  face  of  the  great  con- 
solidations of  the  employers  the  workers  must  also  close  up  their 
ranks  or  be  crushed.  The  multitude  of  craft  unions  must  be  amal- 
gamated into  a  series  of  industrial  unions — one  each  for  the  metal 
trades,  railroad  trades,  clothing  trades,  building  trades,  etc. — even 
as  they  have  been  in  other  countries  The  League  also  aims  to  put 
the  workers  of  America  in  co-operation  with  the  fighting  trade 
unionists  of  the  rest  of  the  world.  It  is  flatly  opposed  to  our  pres- 
ent pitiful  policy  of  isolation,  and  it  advocates  affiliation  to  the 
militant  international  trade  union  movement,  known  as  the  Red 
International  of  Labor  Unions.  The  League  is  campaigning  against 
the  reactionaries,  incompetents,  and  crooks  who  occupy  strategic 
positions  in  many  of  our  organizations.  It  is  striving  to  replace 
them  with  militants,  with  men  and  women  unionists  who  look 
upon  the  labor  movement  not  as  a  means  for  making  an  easy  liv- 
ing, but  as  an  instrument  for  the  achievement  of  working  class 
emancipation.  In  other  words,  the  League  is  working  in  every  di- 
rection necessary  to  put  life  and  spirit  and  power  into  the  trade 
union  movement. 

Organization  of  the  League 
The  Trade  Union  Educational  League  is  what  its  name  implies, 


BANKRUPTCY  OF  THE  LABOR    MOVEMENT  57 

purely  an  educational  organization.  It  carries  on  an  aggressive  cam- 
paign of  instruction  and  stimulation  in  every  stage  and  phase  of  the 
labor  movement.  It  is  in  no  sense  a  dual  union.  It  is  an  auxiliary  of 
the  labor  unions  proper,  not  a  substitute  for  them.  It  collects  no  dues 
or  per  capita  tax,  nor  does  it  accept  the  affiliation  of  any  labor  or- 
ganization whatsoever.  It  issues  no  membership  cards  or  charters. 
Those  wishing  to  become  members  must  fulfill  the  following  condi- 
tions: (1)  belong  to  a  recognized  trade  union,*  (2)  subscribe  to 
The  Laror  Herald,  official  organ  of  the  League,  (3)  satisfy  a  local 
membership  committee  that  they  accept  the  general  program  of  the 
League.  The  revenues  of  the  organization  are  derived  from  the  sale 
of  The  Labor  Herald  and  pamphlets,  collections  at  meetings,  and  dona- 
tions of  members  and  sympathizers  to  the  Sustaining  Fund.  The 
League  proposes  to  hold  national  conferences  yearly.  Between  these 
conferences  the  organization  is  directed  by  the  National  Committee, 
at  present  consisting  of  five  members,  but  which  will  finally  be  ex- 
tended to  fifteen,  including  a  Secretary-Treasurer,  and  fourteen  sec- 
retaries of  the  National  Industrial  Sections  of  the  League,  as  follows : 
Amusement  Trades,  Building  Trades,  Clothing  Trades,  Food  Trades, 
General  Transport  Trades,  Lumber  Trades,  Metal  Trades,  Mining 
Trades,  Miscellaneous  Trades,  Printing  Trades,  Public  Service  Trades, 
Railroad  Trades,  Textile  Trades,  and  Local  General  Groups. 

The  organization  plan  of  the  Trade  Union  Educational  League  is 
to  follow  with  its  militant  groupings  all  the  ramifications  of  the  labor 
union  movement.  To  this  end  it  sets  up  its  educational  organizations 
in  all  localities,  crafts,  and  industries.  The  local  General  Groups  are 
made  up  of  militants  from  all  trades.  Their  function  is  to  carry  on 
the  local  work  generally.  They  are  sub-divided  into  Local  Industrial 
Sections,  one  for  each  broad  industry.  Then  there  are  state  organiza- 
tions to  correspond  to  the  State  Federations  of  Labor.  These  local 
and  state  groups  are  in  turn  being  combined  into  four  districts,  Can- 
ada, Eastern  States,  Central  States,  and  Western  States. 

A  most  important  part  of  the  League  are  the  National  Industrial 
Sections.  These  are  being  organized  in  all  the  big  industries,  as  spec- 
ified above.  They  are  each  headed  by  a  National  Committee,  selected 
either  by  correspondense  or  at  national  conferences,  and  representing 


#By  "recognized"  unions  are  meant  those  organizations,  independent  and  A.  1  . 
of  L.  alike,  which  in  the  judgment  of  the  League  can  be  adapted  to  amalgamation. 
Some,  particularly  the  universal  dual  unions  claiming  rights  over  all  industries,  will 
have  to  be  openly  opposed  as  impossible  to  link  up  with  the  general  labor  movement. 


58  BANKRUPTCY   OF  THE  LABOR  MOVEMENT 

all  crafts,  A.  F.  of  L.  and  independent,  in  their  respective  spheres. 
These  National  Committees  map  out  educational  programs  for  their 
whole  industries  and  create  Local  Industrial  Sections  to  carry  them 
into  the  local  unions  everywhere.  The  effect  is  that  even  in  an  in- 
dustry with  20  or  30  craft  unions  the  militants  function  on  an  indus- 
trial basis.  No  matter  whether  it  is  a  rebel  section  hand  in  San 
Diego,  California,  or  a  militant  engineer  in  Portland,  Maine,  all  rail- 
road members  of  the  League  are  working  upon  a  common  industrial 
program  and  seeking  in  their  many  organizations  to  make  it  prevail. 
In  the  amalgamation  movement,  for  example,  with  the  militants  in 
the  several  craft  unions  of  a  given  industry  definitely  agreed  upon 
creating  an  industrial  union  and  working  in  unity  to  break  down  the 
walls  between  their  respective  organizations  so  that  all  may  be  com- 
bined into  one  body,  the  get-together  effect  is  irresistable.  Gompers 
and  all  his  reactionary  henchmen  will  never  be  able  to  withstand  it. 

The  League  at  Work 

Although  the  League  has  been  active  but  a  few  months  and  has 
hardly  made  a  start  at  creating  its  machinery,  and  notwithstanding 
the  fact  that  the  militants,  because  of  their  long  connection  with  dual 
unionism,  have  but  slight  prestige  in  the  trade  unions  and  know  very 
little  about  how  to  work  effectively  in  them,  nevertheless  the  organ- 
ization has  made  wonderful  headway.  The  workers  are  responding 
to  its  efforts  in  a  manner  which  is  a  delight  to  the  militants  and  the 
despair  of  the  reactionaries.  Already  the  League  has  demonstrated 
beyond  question  that  the  rank  and  file  of  Labor  are  ready  for  a  rad- 
ical program  of  action. 

In  advocating  the  various  planks  of  its  platform  the  League  has 
developed  a  series  of  movements  within  the  trade  unions,  all  of  which 
have  shown  a  surprising  vitality.  An  important  one  was  the  demand 
for  a  general  strike  of  all  workers  throughout  the  country  as  a  pro- 
test against  the  Daugherty  injunction  and  other  tyrannies  of  the  em- 
ployers. This  movement  was  initiated  in  Omaha  when  League  mili- 
tants introduced  the  general  strike  resolution  into  the  Central  Labor 
Council.  The  resolution  was  adopted  and  ordered  sent  to  all  central 
bodies,  with  the  result  that  hundreds  of  organizations  endorsed  it. 
Mr.  Gompers  himself  stated  publicly  that  he  had  200  demands  for 
nation-wide  action  and  that  never  in  the  history  of  the  labor  move- 
ment had  there  been  such  a  wide-spread  sentiment  for  a  general 
strike.      The  educational  effect  of  the  movement  was  great. 


BANKRUPTCY  OF  THE  LABOR  MOVEMENT  59 

A  large  body  of  sentiment  has  also  been  created  in  favor  of  affili- 
ation to  the  Red  International  of  Labor  Unions.  Handreds  of  local 
unions  and  dozens  of  central  labor  councils  have  endorsed  the  propo- 
sition. The  Detroit  and  Seattle  central  bodies  have  sent  delegates  to 
Moscow,  and  District  No.  26,  United  Mine  Workers,  has  voted  to 
affiliate.  In  the  prevailing  strike  of  railroad  shopmen  and  miners  the 
League  has  also  taken  an  active  part,  its  speakers  encouraging  and 
assisting  the  workers  everywhere.  In  the  Miners'  Union  the  League 
is  particularly  effective.  At  present  it  is  putting  up  progressive  tick- 
ets, with  excellent  chances  for  victory,  in  many  districts  and  sub- 
districts  which  have  been  used  for  years  as  pawns  by  the  corrupt  in- 
ternational administrations.  A  great  service  was  the  League's  check- 
ing of  the  outburst  of  dual  union  sentiment  that  developed  through 
the  brutal  expulsion  of  Alexander  Howat  and  the  Kansas  District. 
A  year  before  such  an  outrage  would  have  surely  split  the  Miners' 
Union.  But  as  it  was,  the  League,  through  its  constant  hammering 
against  secessionist^  had  been  able  to  drive  home  to  the  rebels  some 
understanding  of  the  disaster  of  dualism,  and  aided  by  the  splendid, 
common-sense  attitude  of  Howat,  was  able  to  prevent  them  from 
organizing  breakaway  movements.  At  least  two  districts  were  held 
in  the  U.  M.  W.  A.  directly  through  the  League's  efforts  and  serious 
splits  were  avoided  in  many  more.  This  work  of  solidarity  was  a 
great  achievement  for  the  League  and  the  labor  movement  at  large. 
It  probably  saved  the  whole  coal  miners'  organization;  for  had  a  bad 
break  occurred  over  the  Howat  case,  and  it  would  have  done  so  with- 
out the  League's  influence,  the  union  never  could  have  weathered  the 
great  storm  then  about  to  descend  upon  it,  the  national  general  strike 
of  1922. 

But  the  issue  with  which  the  League  has  scored  its  greatest  suc- 
cess is  that  of  industrial  unionism  through  amalgamation.  This  move- 
ment to  combine  all  the  craft  unions  into  a  series  of  industrial  organ- 
izations it  as  present  sweeping  the  country  like  a  prairie  fire.  The 
workers  realize  that  the  death  knell  of  craft  unionism  has  sounded 
and  that  the  way  to  a  higher  form  of  organization  lies  through  amal- 
gamation. Men  and  organizations,  who  a  year  ago  were  entirely 
untouched  by  industrial  union  ideas,  are  now  lining  up  for  the  project 
enthusiastically  and  in  wholesale  fashion.  The  "old  guard''  of  the  trade 
union  bureaucracy  are  alarmed  as  never  before  in  their  experience. 
The  amalgamation  movement  proper  got  under  way  in  the  latter 
part  of  March,  1922,  when  the  Chicago  Federation  of  Labor  adopted 


60  BANKRUPTCY  OF  THE  LABOR  MOVEMENT 

its  now  famous  resolution  calling  for  the  consolidation  of  all  the  craft 
unions  into  industrial  unions.  Led  by  Mr.  Gompers  himself,  the  re- 
actionaries declared  war  against  the  movement.  But  to  no  avail, 
amalgamation  sentiment  ran  on  like  a  flood  everywhere.  Since  then 
(this  is  being  written  in  October,  1922)  thousands  of  local  unions, 
scores  of  central  labor  councils,  and  five  international  unions,  *  Rail- 
way Clerks,  Maintenance  of  Way,  Butcher  Workmen,  Fire  Fighters, 
and  Amalgamated  Food  Workers,  have  adopted  and  endorsed  general 
amalgamation  projects.  The  State  Federations  of  labor  have  been  par- 
ticularly responsive.  During  the  past  four  months  thirteen  of  them 
have  acted  upon  the  proposition  and  in  eleven  instances,  viz. :  Minne- 
sota, Washington,  Utah,  Colorado,  Wisconsin,  Nebraska,  Michigan, 
Indiana,  Oregon,  South  Dakota,  and  Ohio,  the  amalgamationists  won 
out  overwhelmingly  in  spite  of  desperate  resistance  from  the  reaction- 
aries. And  in  the  two  failures,  California  and  Illinois,  the  craft  union- 
ists secured  the  victory  only  by  narrow  margins.  The  movement  for 
solidarity  is  irresistible. 

A  high  point  in  the  campaign  was  the  Detroit  convention  of  the 
Maintenance  of  Way,  when  the  1,500  delegates  not  only  endorsed 
amalgamation  on  five  separate  occasions,  but  they  also  cleaned  out 
19  of  21  of  their  general  officials,  including  the  President,  Grable. 
Even  the  independent  unions  have  been  deeply  affected  by  the  amal- 
gamation movement.  A  year  ago  the  whole  tendency  was  for  them 
to  split  and  split  again,  but  now  they  are  exhibiting  strong  get- 
together  movements.  In  the  boot  and  shoe  and  textile  industries 
amalgamations  of  the  independents  are  now  under  way,  and  further 
consolidations  may  be  looked  for  in  the  near  future.  The  amalgama- 
tion campaign,  now  sweeping  victoriously  onward,  will  culminate  in- 
evitably in  a  profound  re-organization  of  the  labor  movement.  It  is 
a  veritable  triumph  for  industrial  unionism,  and  the  Trade  Union 
Educational  League  is  the  heart  of  it  all. 

In  Conclusion 

The  American  labor  movement  is  bankrupt.  With  its  reactionary 
bureaucracy  and  antiquated  political  and  industrial  policies  and  organ- 
izatien,  it  is  altogether  unfit  to  cope  with  the  alert,  highly-organized 
capitalist  class.    Politically  it  has  long  been  a  cipher,  and  now  it  is  in 

*At  its  May,  1922,  convention  the  Amalgamated  Clothing  Workers  of  America 
also  reiterated  more  strongly  than  ever  its  demand  for  amalgamation  of  all  the 
unions    in   the   clothing   industry. 


BANKRUPTCY  OF  THE  LABOR  MOVEMENT  61 

grave  danger  of  extinction  industrially  also.  During  the  recent  past 
the  capitalist  class  has  discovered  a  new  aggressiveness  and  developed 
a  powerful  organization.  It  is  no  longer  the  same  class  which,  before 
the  war,  was  semi-tolerant  of  trade  unionism.  Now  it  is  determined 
to  root  out  every  vestige  of  Organized  Labor.  The  "open  shop"  em- 
ployers have  dealt  the  unions  shattering  blows  in  practically  every 
industry,  including  printing,  building,  meat  packing,  steel,  railroad, 
general  transport,  coal  and  mining,  etc.  Consequently  the  entire  trade 
union  movement  has  suffered  disastrously.  During  the  last  three 
years  it  has  lost  fully  50%  of  its  entire  membership.  The  whole  fabric 
of  Organized  Labor  is  bleeding.  The  labor  movement  is  in  a  most 
critical  state.  So  critical,  in  fact,  that  it  will  never  be  able  to  recover 
unless  it  quickly  and  radically  changes  its  policies.  The  American 
working  class  is  now  imminently  confronted  with  the  tragic  menace 
of  having  its  trade  union  movement  obliterated. 

There  are  still  some  revolutionaries,  unfortunately,  who  would 
welcome  the  elimination  of  the  old  craft  unions,  believing  that  with 
them  out  of  the  way  a  new  and  better  movement  would  speedily 
take  their  place.  But  this  is  a  fatal  delusion.  We  may  absolutely 
depend  upon  it  that  should  the  capitalists,  in  their  great  "open  shop" 
drive,  succeed  in  breaking  the  backbone  of  the  trade  union  movement 
they  would  make  all  labor  organization  illegal  and  repress  it  with  an 
iron  hand.  American  labor  would  be  reduced  to  the  status  of  Russian 
Labor  in  Czarist  days;  it  would  be  forced  to  the  expedient  of  setting 
up  revolutionary  nuclei  in  the  industries  in  preparation  for  some 
favorable  opportunity  when  the  masses  could  be  stirred  to  action.  In- 
deed, even  as  it  is,  this  system  will  doubtless  have  to  be  applied  in 
some  of  our  industries  if  they  are  ever  to  be  organized.  The  mass 
trade  unions  are  the  only  protection  for  the  workers'  right  to  organ- 
ize; the  only  bulwark  against  a  general  flood  of  capitalist  tyranny. 
They  must  be  defended  and  strengthened  at  all  costs. 

In  this  grave  crisis  of  the  labor  movement  no  relief  may  be  ex- 
pected from  the  trade  union  bureaucrats  in  high  official  place.  With 
the  rarest  of  exceptions,  they  are  dominated  entirely  by  the  intellectu- 
ally dead  Gompers.  Apparently  they  would  slavishly  follow  him  over 
the  precipice  to  destruction.  They  are  hopelessly  self-lashed  to  the 
chariot  of  conservatism.  Even  now,  in  this  hour  of  need,  they  resist 
with  desperation  the  mildest  reforms  in  the  movement's  policies  and 
structure.  The  further  the  capitalists  push  them  back  the  more  timid 
and  reactionary  they  become.     They  are  mentally  frozen  over  solid. 


62  BANKRUPTCY  OF  THE  LABOR  MOVEMENT 

If  the  labor  movement  is  to  be  saved  the  regenerating  force  must  come 
from  the  organized  rank  and  file  militants.  They  must  surge  up  from 
the  bottom  and  compel  the  static  leadership  into  vigorous,  intelligent 
action,  or  remove  it  drastically. 

It  is  fortunate,  indeed,  that  just  in  this  critical  situation,  when 
their  services  are  so  badly  needed,  the  militants  are  at  last  freeing 
themselves  from  the  dual  unionism  which  has  cursed  them  and  the 
whole  labor  movement  for  a  generation  by  keeping  the  reactionary 
elements  in  power.  They  are  organizing  for  action  in  the  Trade  Union 
Educational  League,  and  they  are  finding  the  American  working  class, 
naturally  militant  and  aggressive,  more  than  eager  to  accept  their 
program.  Now  the  key  to  the  situation  is  for  the  revolutionaries  and 
progressives  generally  to  rally  around  the  League  and  to  carry  on  a 
vigorous  campaign  for  its  policies  of  industrial  unionism  through 
amalgamation,  independent  workers'  political  action,  affiliation  with 
the  Red  International  of  Labor  Unions,  and  all  the  rest.  If  this  is 
done  it  will  not  be  long  until  the  death  clutch  of  the  Gompers  bur- 
eaucracy is  broken  and  the  American  labor  movement,  undergoing  a 
profound  renaissance,  takes  its  place  where  it  properly  belongs,  in  the 
vanguard  of  the  world's  workers. 


THE  END 


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